


Be Kind, Rewind

by ohnice1



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fluff, Humor, I don't know how to write tags in a logical order, Kara POV, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Romance, alternate universe major character death is alluded to multiple times, cool beans, dumbass Kara is my favorite Kara, grumpy Alex is here too but it feels wrong to list her as a main character, no one dies in this fic but if that's a trigger for you please be warned, tbh I'm just glad to be posting this after my quote unquote beta went wild with it 2 months ago, this was a labor of love so I hope you enjoy it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26735620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohnice1/pseuds/ohnice1
Summary: As Kara and Lena shake hands, the story begins. While tracking down Lex, Kara and Lena discover that although trust doesn't return at the drop of a hat, a little communication goes a long way. Meanwhile, everyone's favorite fifth-dimensional pest gets impatient and uses a little Mxy magic to support Kara's happiness.Or: Kara and Lena sort out their sh*t with the help of some home videosOR: the start to season 6 we deserveWritten for the 2020 Supercorp Big Bang
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 57
Kudos: 343
Collections: Supercorp Big Bang 2020





	1. Hope

**Author's Note:**

> For my "beta," Kim, without whom this labor of love would have languished away in Google Docs, never to be finished (even though she once proposed a restructuring that literally murdered 10k of this fic), and for splodgebum7504, the artist I was so lucky to be paired with for this Big Bang!
> 
> And for my wife, who will literally never read this because it's "too long" but who supported me through not only the very strange sleep schedule that came as a result of writing this but also everything I ever do (which, I can assure you, is absolutely absurd)

It’s a tense moment but also the first calm, kind, and honest conversation Kara and Lena have had in months.

Lena’s lip is quivering, tears on the brink of spilling over. “What now?”

Kara straightens, confident. “Well there’s still _one_ bad guy left to catch.”

Lena mimics her pose, jaw set and tears pushed back. “Let’s go take my brother down.”

Lena’s extended her hand, but to Kara, it’s an olive branch, and she’s happy to take it. The handshake feels both like a new beginning and the return to something great all at once.

Kara is the first to speak as their hands part. “But as for _right now_ , I don’t think we’re gonna catch any more bad guys tonight. Could I...fly you home?”

“Oh,” Lena hedges. “Well, I have a few things around here I should probably-”

“Lena,” Kara sighs. “We’ve been at this all day and it’s late. Even if you say no, you should really go home and get some rest.”

Lena softens. “Well, someone did say once, ‘No rest for the world-saving genius,’” she jokes, earning a soft laugh from Kara.

“‘World-saving genius,’ huh? Wonder who said that.” There’s a twinkle in Kara’s eye as she remembers the moment and holds Lena’s stare.

Lena cracks and the way she smiles is almost bashful; after a brief pause, she snaps herself out of the moment. “Well, since today has been a day of righting wrongs and taking strides forward...I’m actually going to listen to you and go home.”

Kara bites her tongue; they’re in too precarious a place right now for her to make an offer a second time. Lena grabs her coat and purse before walking to the door and turning around expectantly. “You coming?” she asks as if the answer is the most obvious thing in the world.

Supergirl does not bounce with delight, but if she did, one could argue that it happened at that moment. “Could I interest you in a Big Belly Burger pitstop on the way?”

Lena snorts. “Kara, if you can discreetly fly both of us to a Big Belly Burger without having to scale the side of a building or walk half a mile afterward, I’ll even pay for it.”

Out of courtesy, Kara only orders a human amount of food. How could Lena have known that she already had a preferred drop zone at all of her favorite restaurants?

*****

It starts to feel like Kara and Lena are performing a dance they rehearsed a million times, but only tried to perform after several months off. Overall, it’s _fine,_ and they’re still moving, the movement patterns from years spent together firmly ingrained, but the missteps range from barely noticeable to agonizing.

Sometimes it’s no big deal...Lena doesn’t reply to a text, Kara thinks she’s flown off the radar, Lena clarifies she was just in her own world working in her lab; Kara flies over with a bottle of wine to apologize for overreacting, and all is well. Kara makes a sassy comment about Lena hurting her, but apologizes and changes the topic so quickly it becomes no big deal.

Currently, it’s a little more agonizing.

They’re alone in Lena’s lab, seated across from each other and working through the latest sightings and intel on Lex’s whereabouts and hitting dead end after dead end.

“I never thought I’d want Lex to come out of hiding and do something dramatic so badly,” Kara gripes.

Lena laughs cynically. “No kidding. It’s always worse when you don’t see or hear from him for too long. When I was a kid, he-” she stops, watching Kara pick up her phone and grin at it. “Never mind.”

“Sorry!” Kara says sheepishly, immediately dropping the phone face down on the table. “What did he do when you were a kid?”

“Not important. Was that William? Do you need to go?”

Kara looks at Lena in wonder. “William?! No, it was Nia, and it was just a funny meme. See?” She shows Lena the phone. 

Lena laughs, looks away from the phone and down at the table, twisting her hands. “Sorry. It’s none of my business anyway.”

“Of course it’s your business. We _are_ friends again, aren’t we?” Kara feels her stomach lurch a little on the word “friends,” which feels like a proclamation.

Lena looks somewhat placated and nods apprehensively. “We are.” 

It’s quiet for a beat before Kara speaks again. “William and I...that’s nothing. Maybe it almost was, but it’s not now. We’re just colleagues. Friends, I guess.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Lena offers, not sounding very sorry.

Kara shrugs. “Relationships and secret identities don’t really mix. Learned that lesson the hard way with you.”

“Did you?” Lena sounds neutral, maybe even curious, but Kara has the sense that she’s about to be treading on thin ice.

“Lena…” Kara begins tentatively. “We talked about this.” That was the wrong thing to say.

“Did we? Because I seem to recall you saying the past was the past, and you didn’t want to discuss it.”

Kara huffs. “I seem to recall us talking about the mistakes we both made, due to being hurt or out of misguided ideas of protection, and agreeing to move forward.”

“How can I move on from the past if we never really talk about it?!” Lena chokes out. “Yes, we both said our pieces, we apologized. I’m beyond delighted to have you back in my life, but Kara, we need to talk about what happened and how we felt and _feel_ about that, or it’s always going to be the elephant in the room. I spent my whole life as a Luthor hiding my feelings, and I had zoos’ worth of elephants; I don’t want another one with you. The fact that we haven’t talked about this yet makes me think you don’t understand that or me being hurt at all.”

Kara takes a deep breath, her face set in a deep frown. “Wow, okay, so we went from ‘is that William?’ to, ‘let’s have an emotional slugfest.’” She regrets the tone immediately and continues before Lena has a chance to talk. “Sorry, that was really sassy, and I didn’t mean it like that. I was just surprised and it’s been a really long, really disappointing day. But...your feelings are really important to me and, if you want to talk about it, I’m not going anywhere. Let’s talk.”

Lena takes a moment to settle her thoughts. “Thank you,” she begins, buying some more time.

Kara sits up from her slumped position and leans over the table. “Could we start with the low-hanging fruit?” Lena nods, so she continues. “William? Where did that come from and how did that topic bring us here?”

Lena clears her throat and seems to sink into herself in her chair. “That’s the low-hanging fruit here? Really?” she deflects, wringing her hands as Kara continues to look at her expectantly. “I don’t know. The way you looked at your phone and laughed, almost like you were trying to be discreet about it...just looked like something one does after they read a flirty text.”

“Honestly...I was just hoping you wouldn’t see me looking at my phone and laughing and think I wasn’t taking this seriously.”

“I see.”

“I would have told you by now if I were dating someone.”

“Would you?” Lena challenges her, but her tone is almost playful as if she’s trying to avoid worsening the situation.

“Of _course_. Look, Lena, I know we’re in a weird spot, but I do consider you a friend, and I’m done keeping secrets from you.”

Lena’s shoulders relax a little as she shifts forward in her chair. “Thank you for that.”

“But…” Kara begins, pausing to find the right words. “Is that really it? That you thought I was keeping that from you?”

“Actually, no,” Lena admits. “I think my mind was rapidly processing the idea that you would meet someone important to you who you would trust with your secret more quickly than you trusted me.” 

“Lena,” Kara begins, trying to encourage Lena to look up from her own fidgeting hands. “Hey, look at me.” 

Lena looks up, and Kara notices that her eyes are shiny, filling her with the sudden urge to leap over the table and pull her friend into a hug. Instead, she continues, her tone soft and kind. “It was _never_ about trust. Not once, okay? I made a lot of stupid decisions, but one decision I stand by is that I _always_ trusted you.”

Lena doesn’t seem relieved. “Yet you made a series of conscious decisions to hurt me over _years_. That doesn’t go hand-in-hand with trust.”

“I made those decisions because I wanted to protect you and because I was selfish. As much as you clashed with Supergirl, you always loved Kara. You were always happy to see her and share your life with her. I loved you, and I was too selfish to let you see the full truth for fear of losing that.”

Lena doesn’t react immediately, considering Kara’s words. “I know. And I’ve had to spend the last year reconciling the fact that it was you. Putting together my experiences with the person I thought I shared the closest relationship I’ve ever had with the person who didn’t trust me to help Sam. Who asked her friend and my boyfriend to break into my vault to look for something I’d already promised I didn’t have.”

“I was a coward. It’s not easy for me to admit that, but I was. I was too afraid to deal with the consequences of hurting someone I really cared about, so I just let Supergirl deal with them. I’m sorry. Uh, again,” she finishes awkwardly, feeling compelled to keep speaking and fill the void between them with as many words as she can to somehow make things better.

“Do you know how long I spent wondering which one was the real you?”

Kara treats the question as rhetorical. “What did you decide?”

“That, even when you smashed my heart into a million pieces, I still trusted you with my life. Not with anything else, but I knew you would be there to protect me. I guess that means something, even if it’s not really a decision. Maybe it means that I still trusted the idea of Supergirl, even when the idea of trusting Kara Danvers with a piece of my heart again sounded like walking barefoot across a pile of flaming Legos that refuse to melt.” Kara tries her best not to laugh, but a snort escapes, and Lena quickly adds, “That was a joke, you can laugh.”

Kara does, but briefly. “I have to admit I can’t relate to the ‘stepping on a Lego’ pain, but the internet tells me it’s pretty bad.” The smile slowly eases off her face. “I know I let you believe it for years, and I shouldn’t have, but I need you to know that the Kara you befriended and trusted and cared about was always the real me. Supergirl had to care about the whole world, but Kara,” she says as she grows wistful, “well, Kara could just care about you. The times I hugged you or fought for you or crashed your dates thinking I was protecting you from a bad guy - that was _me,_ and it was _real_.” 

“Wow,” Lena breathes out. “I think that was the Kara Danvers equivalent of a Supergirl hope speech.”

Kara smiles. “I know it might take some time for you to internalize that and not just hear it, but...I’m going to show you that I’m still that person. I always have been. She just happens to have a side gig where she has to save the world and be skeptical and difficult.”

“Lucky for you, I’ve got a lot of time on my hands on this Earth, so I’m here to help out with that side gig.” Lena’s relaxed tone stiffens a bit as she continues, “Side effect of my dear brother rewriting reality and taking everything from me; including the company I spent years of my life rebranding. Lex coming back and having me keep my memories from before the crisis wasn't a reward or _good_ , it's torture, punishment, and designed only to benefit him personally. Much to my dismay, I know this side of him well. Nothing I can do about it now except make sure his demise is incredibly painful and even more public. That part of my inner-Luthor never dies. I suppose...I suppose that’s why I try to hurt others as an immediate reaction to being hurt myself.”

Kara sits quietly, unsure whether Lena intends to continue speaking or not. Although the tension in the room has eased, Lena looks to Kara like porcelain right now: firm, but fragile. When she’s sure Lena is done speaking, she takes a chance. “Since we’re trying to clear the air...can I ask something?”

“Of course.”

“It really felt like you were trying to hurt me in every way you possibly could. Does that...I mean, is what you just said the reason? About being a Luthor?”

Lena looks to be considering her words carefully but responds quickly nonetheless. “Mostly. Luthors never forget and only forgive after the price is paid, and the price is always relative to the crime. With you...well, with you, I have to say that I never analyzed it that way, but it’s been ingrained in me for so long and served me well, so it’s instinctual. I’m sure you’re aware by now that a breach of my trust is one of the worst things that can happen to me. My reaction was relative and...extreme.” She makes eye contact briefly before refocusing on her fingernails and continuing. “It wasn’t just about hurting you, though. I was completely focused on making sure no one else had to feel the way I did when you broke my heart. I fooled myself into thinking it was so much bigger than you and me...but in the end, it was just me with my AI named Hope, of all things, trying to make sure that kind of pain wouldn’t have the chance to come around again.” She pauses. “That was...a lot.”

“Yeah,” Kara agrees, drawing out the word to emphasize her agreement. “Thank you for your honesty. I don’t think I can really react to all of that in a way that would do it justice. I’m always happy to hear anything you want to share with me about your past, or that helps me understand you. I appreciate that there’s always more to learn about you even after knowing you for a few years. And maybe...I dunno. Maybe now our friendship can evolve...differently.”

Lena quirks a brow. “Differently?”

“Yeah, I dunno. Better or closer or something. Ach, anyway. I wanna circle back to this ‘Hope’ thing. Hope, really?!”

Lena laughs, and it’s real and relaxed. “Oh, don’t you make fun of me. It was supposed to symbolize my great hope that I could make the world better and without pain.”

“Okay, but like, you do know I was the paragon of hope, right? So basically...you named your AI after me.”

“Well, this is embarrassing.”

Kara beams. “Actually, I think it's adorable that even when you were really mad at me, your subconscious, or the universe, or whatever it was that drove you to name it Hope, kept me nearby. I did something like that, too. Looking at pictures and stuff when I missed you or...needed you.”

“Yes, well,” Lena hedges, “suddenly losing you was...an adjustment. Someone had to be the outlet for all my pain and wacky ideas.” Kara, for once, isn’t amazed by the pivot to humor. “But seriously...thank you for this conversation and for sharing and listening and trying to understand. I know it doesn’t seem like it considering I’ve been sitting here crying on and off, but it does help. I feel...lighter.”

“It's funny you say that. I told Alex the same thing when I _thought_ I got to tell you my secret on my terms. You know, before all this. It’s actually when I flew to Europe to try to win back your love through your stomach. So you know what, yeah, talking and sharing is good. It was cruel of me to not let you get things off your chest when you wanted to when I know how relieving it can be.”

“Ah-ha, so that’s what prompted the world tour of food.”

Kara smirks smugly. “Mmhmm. Don’t tempt me, or I’ll be back in 3 minutes with croissants directly from the Champs-Élysées again.”

Lena practically _giggles,_ and it’s music to Kara’s ears. “Although I wouldn’t say no to another croissant in the future, I’d like to point out the nine-hour time difference and encourage you to reconsider.”

“Crap,” Kara laments just as her phone chirps loudly. “I meant the time difference, but also, crap, alert, 911.”

“Then I guess that’s your cue, Supergirl.”

“No, Lena, we just-”

“Kara,” Lena interrupts gently, reaching out and grabbing one of Kara’s wildly gesturing hands, wrapping it in both of her own. “Go.”

“Are you sure? Like, really, really sure? Because I’m really not in the business of being dismissive of your feelings anymore.”

“Kara, go. We were through the tough stuff anyway.”

“Okay. But I’m definitely bringing you treats another time!”

“Deal,” Lena agrees as Kara stands to go. “Hey, Kara?”

“Hmm?” she replies, turning around again.

Lena moves towards her and pulls her into a hug, and it’s firm and comforting and feels like coming _home_ , Kara thinks. She barely even hears Lena’s quiet, “thank you” over the sound of her own thoughts.

“Don’t thank me. I just did what I should have done a long time ago.” Reluctantly, she steps back and out of Lena’s arms. “See you soon,” she says as she takes off.

As Kara flies away, Lena’s barely audible “I missed you” burns in her ears like fire.


	2. Betamax

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let the games begin

Kara is having a bizarre bout of déjà vu.

The memory of finding a tape - “The One Where Lena Decided To Work With Lex” - in her apartment slams into the front of her mind, and she recalls her visit to Lena’s place after that discovery with a wince.

Of course, that memory doesn’t just come out of nowhere but rather is brought on by the discovery of a new tape lodged between her couch cushions. “The One Where Kara Goes to MIT,” she reads aloud, each word a little louder than the previous. She looks around the room, unsure of what she’s expecting to see, but not knowing how else to process this discovery either. 

Moments like this call for only one thing: snacks. Tossing the tape unceremoniously on the couch, Kara makes her way to the fridge with decidedly inhuman speed. Taking a moment to calm herself before yanking the door open (and potentially off), Kara wishes she’d had the foresight to leave some leftovers from her last Mama Chow’s order as she looks forlornly into a far too barren fridge.

Well, far too barren with the notable exception of some wilted kale (for Lena, obviously. _Ew_ ), milk, eggs, kombucha ( _also ew_ ), and another tape. Wait. What?

Kara groans. “The One Where Beebo Gets Involved?!” She tosses that one onto the couch, too, and if someone were to point out that she used a little bit of super-strength, she would never admit to it. 

The combination of kale, kombucha, and more tapes is enough to put Lena at the top of Kara’s mind.

She snaps a photo of the sad-looking kale and bottle of kombucha before pinching the kale between her thumb and index finger, holding it at a full arm’s length distance, and chucking it in the trash. _We miss you!_ She captions the photo, punctuating her text with what she’s pretty sure are the lettuce and green tea emojis before sending it off to Lena. 

Lena’s reply - _Help yourself_ \- comes within a minute. Kara replies with the puke emoji and redirects her attention to the previous situation at hand, working her bottom lip between her teeth as she looks back and forth between her depressing refrigerator and the couch.

She settles on admitting to herself that she isn’t even hungry - a strategy both Alex and Lena have been trying to equip her with for, literally, years - and plods back to the couch, resigned to dealing with the mysterious appearance of the tapes.

It’s been months since her time-traveling adventures, and there’s no way Kara could have missed these tapes for that long, she reasons. No, these were undoubtedly new arrivals - but why? What was Mxy playing at this time? She picks up the most ridiculous one - “The One Where Beebo Gets Involved” - and puts it into the Betamax player, the presence of which she’d recently complained about: the nerve of Mxy to leave that behind and not the popcorn machine...

On-screen, Kara and Lena are walking towards the courthouse together. “Lillian”s trial,” Kara points out to no one but herself. So far, everything is playing out just as she remembers, and she’s wondering what the point of this was. Are these tapes only memories? A text from Alex distracts her, and, soon after, they’re chatting on the phone about the questionable intel indicating Lex might be back in National City.

She debates texting Lena to get her opinion on the situation (or, rather, situations, as both the videos and Lex are niggling away at the back of her mind now), but something in her gut gives her pause. She turns the TV back on - she’d talked to Alex for so long that it had gone to sleep - and pushes play on the remote, only for the Betamax player to make an angry mechanical sound in response. Kara moves to the ground, leaning towards the machine and removing the tape to inspect it. Did it break while she was gone? Was it a one-time-only viewing opportunity?

The tape looks fine, she reasons. She gives it a light shake, puts it back in the player, and presses play again, only to receive the same angry mechanical noise in response. “Come on,” she grumbles, flopping forward to press play on the machine itself. However, her very elegant flop leads to her accidentally pressing rewind and the player hums to life, reverse images moving at high speed on the screen. Betamax and VHS were both all but dead when she came to Earth, she reasons, feeling an urgent need to validate not knowing that she needed to actually press rewind.

Two painful minutes later, the tape is done rewinding, and Kara starts it over from the beginning, observing again to see what could be different from the first time. Finally, she notices some minor differences: wearing clothes she’s never even owned, having a conversation with Lena she doesn’t remember ever having. What was Mxy playing at? Kara learned during their last “adventure” together that her memories were unreliable, but understanding that didn’t provide much insight now.

That thought lasted about five more minutes. Just as she expected Metallo to burst onto the scene following some distant cries of terror and damaged property, Kara finally saw what was different in this timeline: it wasn’t Metallo showing up at the courthouse.

It was Beebo.

Instinctively, her finger moves to the stop button with super speed before she even has time to design a rational thought. “I don’t even need to know what kind of hellscape the Legends must have created for Beebo to show up,” she finally manages.

Leaning her head back against the couch and staring at the ceiling, Kara heaves a sigh of frustration. She’s _bored_. The interim period between knowing she has to kick somebody’s butt and actually being able to kick somebody’s butt is the worst. She picks up her phone, hoping that Alex had texted an update that she’d somehow managed to miss, the outcome of which is disappointing. She could go on patrol, but it would be pretty embarrassing to have to stop in the middle of interrupting something like a bank heist to go deal with Lex Luthor.

As if the universe (or Mxy, more likely) picked up on her boredom, another tape catches Kara’s eye. On her table, sandwiched in between the book she’d finished last week and her plate from this morning’s breakfast, is another tape: “The One Where Lena Tells Kara It’s Okay.”

Kara gulps. She’d seen another timeline where Lena accepted her revelation, only for everything else to turn out horribly; she wasn’t in the mood for a similar experience. Maybe this one would be different?

Before she can think about it any further, she’s playing the tape.

In a montage-like series of events (Mxy’s attempt to put Kara in the moment, she guesses, since she didn’t choose this point in time), Supergirl makes her way through the Daxamite ship, taking out guards left and right as Lillian Luthor trails behind her. 

Where was Henshaw? 

_At a doorway, Supergirl swiftly takes out a four-guard unit to reveal a grinning Mon-El and a very pleased Lena on the other side._

_“Hi,” Mon-El beams._

_“Hi,” Supergirl responds awkwardly._

Perched on the edge of the couch, Kara’s stomach tightens as she recognizes this moment as one of the first turning points in her friendship with Lena, an early moment where she had the chance to reveal her truth naturally, but chose to lie instead. She remembers using the “Kara Danvers sent me” line, not for the first time.

_This time, though, Supergirl throws her arms around Mon-El, clearly surprising him if his hesitation in returning the hug is any indicator. As quickly as that moment begins, it’s over._

_“Lena!” Supergirl greets, a bit too cheery._

_“Supergirl,” Lena responds, a smirk surrounding her words. As soon as she’s said the word, Kara has her wrapped up in a hug. To say that Lena looks confused would be an understatement. “Uh,” she stutters lamely. “It’s nice to see you...too…?”_

_“Supergirl?” Mon-El chimes in, lamely attempting to save the situation and keep up appearances._

_Kara steps back just enough to leave a hand on Lena’s shoulder and look her in the eye. “Lena, this isn’t exactly the best time. Actually, we don’t even really have any time…” Kara trails off, shaking her head and forcing herself to continue. “But you need to know who I am.”_

_“Supergirl, you don’t have to-”_

_Kara cuts her off. “Yes, I do. You said you didn’t come to National City to make friends, but one forced herself on you, and you deserve for that to be real.”_

_Confusion twists Lena’s features. “I never told you that…”_

_“You did...as Kara. It’s me, Lena. I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner.”_

_The moment Kara finishes speaking, Lillian’s voice booms through the doorway. “Are you two quite done yet, or has the threat of imminent death suddenly escaped you? We need to go. Now.”_

_“I…” Lena stammers. “She’s right, we should go,” she manages, her voice lacking its usual strength and confidence._

_Kara takes a deep breath and stills herself, spinning on her heel just in time to see Lillian and Lena disappear through the portal - and leaving Mon-El and her behind to fend for themselves. “Great,” she mumbles bitterly._

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” couch-Kara points out. “We were left there to die anyway, so nothing new.”

As if on cue, the video begins to play at high speed, and things seem to be mostly playing out as they had the first time. Playback returns to normal speed with Kara and Clark arriving on the L-Corp balcony, greeted by Lena and Lillian (and Lillian’s snide remarks).

_“What do you want?” Clark asks harshly, Kara actively avoiding eye contact with both Luthor women._

Things play out exactly as Kara remembers until she and Clark begin to make their exit.

_“Kara,” Lena calls._

_Clark furrows his brow. “I’ll meet you back at the DEO.” He doesn’t wait for a response before taking off._

_“Lena, I-”_

_“I wanted to-”_

_They start and stop speaking simultaneously. Kara gestures for Lena to continue. “I wanted to say something about...what you said.” She stops there, leaving her words hanging between them for a moment._

_Kara’s eyes flick towards the window momentarily, Lillian’s movement catching her attention. In the split second until she shifts her focus back to Lena, it happens._

_A Daxamite soldier hovers in the air just above the balcony with a staff extended towards Lena._

_The zap happens before Kara even has a chance to process his presence._

_“Rhea looks forward to your meeting,” he recites, speeding off in the ship’s direction._

_“Lena!” Kara cries out, immediately at Lena’s side._

_Lena, who is lying on the balcony, motionless and with a sizable hole in her torso._

_Lillian appears a moment later. “What on Earth was - oh my God, Lena!”_

_Kara is already moving to position her arms under Lena’s knees and back. “You’re gonna be okay. I’m gonna get you to a hospital.”_

_“Kara,” Lena manages, her voice weak and gruff._

_Kara is determined. “You’re gonna be fine,” she repeats._

_“Kara!” Lena forces out._

_“No! No, no, no. Don’t Lena,” Kara argues._

_Lena groans, using what little energy she can muster to grab Kara’s wrist. “I wanted to tell you,” she stops, wincing. Lillian is standing in the doorway, pale and motionless with a steely expression._

_“Lena,” Kara chokes out, her voice watery. “I’m so sorry.”_

_Lena’s grip on Kara’s wrist tightens. She takes a deep breath. “Always the hero.”_

_Kara is sobbing, and Lena’s hand moves from her wrist to her cheek, her touch feather-light. “Kara, it’s okay. We’re okay.”_

_Kara doesn’t say anything, and Lillian is still frozen in place. Lena’s head lolls to the side a little, her arm falling back on top of her body._

_She’s gone._

“What?!” Kara practically roars, literally flying off the couch into the air. “That was not okay! So not okay! Bad title, Mxy!”

Her phone chooses that exact moment to ring. She doesn’t even look at it before answering.

“Hello?!” she growls, angered by the interruption.

“Um, did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Lena!” Kara squeaks. “Uh, sorry. Yes! I mean no, now’s not a bad time.”

“Right...are you okay?”

“Peachy.” Kara cringes at herself and bites down on her index finger.

“Okay. Well, you didn’t answer my text, which isn’t like you on the weekend, so I just thought I’d call.”

Kara switches the phone to speaker and goes to her message. “Oh, did you write me? Sorry! Alex called, I guess I didn’t see it.” She finds the text. “Ah, yep. I see it now. ‘Heard my dear brother has made his grand return, how can I help?’” she reads. “My bad.”

“It’s fine, Kara.” Lena soothes. “I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.”

“Nope, definitely not! Nothing happening here!” Kara cringes at herself. “I mean, I’m sure Alex would tell you, too.”

Lena hums in acknowledgment, and Kara can’t believe how sarcastic a single “hmm” can sound coming from Lena. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Alex hasn’t exactly played the role of the forgiving type with me.”

“Yeah, but that’s just Alex,” Kara defends lamely. “She’s kinda like a mom in that way. Like when you’re growing up, and one of your friends does something mean to you, so you tell your mom about it, and then she never sees that friend as your friend ever again.”

“Mmm, I wouldn’t know. Far too motherly for Lillian’s tastes. I’ll take your word for it.”

Kara cringes; she’s really on a roll. “Ugh, sorry. Bad analogy.”

“It’s fine.”

Kara feels desperate to break the tension. “Anyway. I can promise one of us will let you know what’s going on and how you can help.”

“Thank you,” Lena says stiffly as Kara hears a spoon clinking in a teacup in the background.

“Teatime?”

The spoon clinking turns into a _crash_ and a _splash_ as Lena mutters, “Shit.”

“You okay?”

“Oh, fine, just spilling tea and shattering porcelain all over my kitchen, as you do. I’ll call you back, okay?”

Kara gets an idea. “Cool beans! Bye!”

Lena snickers through the phone. “Bye.”

“Cool beans?!” Kara shouts at herself. “Ugh.” At least she was successful in making Lena laugh.

She throws herself back onto the couch with a huff. “Cool beans,” she laments again, her wallowing interrupted by the crashing (to Kara’s ears, anyway) of a teardrop onto the couch cushion. She hadn’t even noticed she’d been crying, probably still from the tape. Now, her wallowing increases exponentially as she remembers she not only watched Alternate-Universe-Lena _die_ a few minutes ago, but also acted like a complete doofus in front of real-life-Lena just a few seconds ago.

No time for wallowing now, though. Kara wipes her face, puts on her shoes, and flies out the window - Lena’s favorite bakery was closing in five minutes.

When Kara touches down on Lena’s balcony six minutes later, she’s feeling pretty proud of herself (and lucky that there were no lines this late in the afternoon). Naturally, the door is open.

“You know, maybe not a good idea to leave your door wide open with your maniacal brother back on the scene,” she greets.

What Kara did not account for, however, is that Lena doesn’t have super-hearing, and Kara also hadn’t bothered to actually tell her she was coming. Lena _shrieks_ , shards of porcelain flying into the air and back onto the floor, shattering into more pieces. “Jesus, Kara! You scared the hell out of me!”

“Ohh, crap, sorry!” Kara moves quickly around the room. “There, all better!” The floor is spotless.

Lena looks around, wholly perplexed and with a hand still on her chest as if her heart were about to beat straight out of it. “You might have a career as a housekeeper if things at Catco ever fall through. I hear their new CEO really has her moments and makes her Pulitzer winners write puff pieces about fashion.”

“Sorry, I kind of forgot that about five factors were coming together that meant randomly appearing inside your apartment would probably terrify you.”

Lena takes a deep, steadying breath. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“Well, hopefully, I can make it up to you.” Kara speeds to the table near the balcony, where she’d emptied her hands after arriving. “I come bearing gifts.”

“Kara...did you…?”

“Fly to Paris and Milan to get you your favorite croissants and coffee? Maybe.”

“Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées,” Lena says in a singsong voice.

Kara, caught off guard by Lena speaking French, fails to catch what she said. “What?”

“It’s from a song. Sort of a corny translated adaptation of an English song, and it’s basically a love letter to the Champs-Elysées. It always plays in those tourist buses when they’re on that street.”

Kara is incredulous. “ _You_ were on a tourist bus?”

“Maybe once,” Lena admits slyly. “The line I said, it means, ‘There’s everything you want on the Champs-Elysées.’” 

Lena’s heart flutters a little, and hearing it makes Kara swallow thickly. 

“Anyway...you really didn’t have to do that. Not that I’m not happy,” Lena finishes.

Kara beams. “I wanted to. And I _did_ promise you treats, so...after you spilled your tea, it seemed like the perfect time.”

“Well, thank you,” Lena says earnestly. “Are you sure it’s nothing else? You sounded sort of...weird on the phone.”

“Gee, thanks,” Kara deadpans.

“Oh, stop it, you know I didn’t mean anything by it. Just worried.” 

Lena is unwrapping a croissant with childlike delight and Kara smiles despite herself. “Ach, just a weird morning,” Kara comments with a dismissive hand wave. “All good.” She looks around the apartment, taking it to avoid staring at Lena, who’s looking at her croissant like it’s the love of her life. “Your place looks different.”

“Mmm,” Lena mutters through her full mouth, taking a moment to finish chewing before continuing. “Another side effect of Lex’s crisis handiwork.”

Kara moves around the open kitchen and living room, taking note of some papers on the floor. She picks them up, just intending to be polite and get them off the floor, but notices what they are: suit designs.

Lena notices her and comments before Kara has a chance to ask. “Prototypes. Trying to find the perfect balance with something that fully protects you but doesn’t lock you into an enclosed suit.” She takes a sip of her coffee. “God, this is good,” she practically moans.

Kara puts down the designs. “Thank you. They already look really advanced. When did you start these?”

Lena looks away. “Before I even knew if you’d ever even consider wearing them. After I left Lex, but before I came to see you.”

Kara draws her lower lip between her teeth, contemplating. “Give me five minutes.”

Before Lena can respond, Kara is out the window, and the resulting gust of wind narrowly misses blowing Lena’s hair into her coffee.

When Kara returns - six minutes later - Lena is brushing her hands off over the sink to remove the lingering flakes of the croissant she just finished. “You’re late,” she teases, hearing Kara enter right away this time. 

Kara holds up a bag next to her head. “Sorry! There was a line. Realized your Dublin sandwiches were missing.” Lena opens her mouth to reply, but Kara stops here. “I know you’re going to say I didn’t have to do that, and I know. I wanted to. I saw your suit designs and thought about being here and...yeah. I’ve missed you, and I wanted to, cause the first time I did that for you, it wasn’t, well, real, I guess.” Kara hears Lena’s heartbeat speed up and considers making a remark about hearing Lena’s recent, barely-there “I missed you,” but holds back.

Lena smiles warmly. “The sandwiches...they remind me of my childhood. I actually don’t even remember eating them as a kid; in fact, I doubt I did, but every time I’m in Dublin, it feels a little like home, and these sandwiches always prompt those feelings. Like they bring back happy memories I never got to have.”

“Then I guess you’re lucky food is my love language.”

“I don’t think food is a love language, Kara.”

Kara looks aghast. “It is for me!” she defends. “What’s your love language then, if you’re such an expert?”

Lena looks surprised but also intrigued. “I guess it depends on if I’m giving or receiving. Since we’re talking about giving...then it’s giving gifts.”

“Suitable for a billionaire,” Kara teases.

“Mmhmm.” Lena bites into her sandwich. “God, this is _divine_.”

Kara finds herself channeling all of her strength not to make a joke about making Lena moan twice within ten minutes and goes back to merely watching Lena. Grateful, open, beautiful, living, breathing Lena.

Her phone breaks her reverie, and it’s Alex calling.

“Hey, Alex!”

“Hey. Can you come by? I wanna give you an update and get your thoughts on something.”

Kara grimaces. “Now?” she tries to say evenly.

“Yeah. Why? You busy?”

“Sort of,” Kara says quickly. “But it’s fine. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Thanks. Bye.”

“Bye.”

“Duty calls again?” Lena asks. Is she disappointed, or is Kara projecting?

“‘Fraid so. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. At least now you’re not running off claiming you forgot something,” Lena jokes with a wink.

“Excuse creativity is not part of my skill set,” Kara grumbles. “But yeah. I’ll keep you posted, okay?”

“Okay.”

Kara opens her mouth to say goodbye, but moves towards Lena instead and pulls her into a very tight hug, savoring the sound of Lena’s heartbeat for another moment. “See you soon.”

Lena sighs, and it’s...dreamy? Sad? Kara can’t put her finger on it. “Bye, Kara.”

Soon after, Kara is touching down at J’onn’s place. “Hey guys,” she greets Alex and J’onn.

“Hey, Kara,” Alex replies, walking over for the requisite hug. 

“So, what’s up?”

“Not much,” J’onn comments grimly. “A lot of dead ends and hearsay. But...we are certain now that he’s here.”

“Well, that’s something,” Kara points out optimistically.

“Barely,” Alex grumbles.

“Well, it’s more than what we had,” Kara counters. “What did you wanna get my opinion on?”

“Oh, right,” Alex says, seeming to just remember that she’d made that suggestion. “We got some intel and drew out these potential locations on a map, but they’re not saying anything to me, and I don’t think they’re forming a legit story. What do you think?”

Kara looks at the map, taking it in. “Not sure. Any connection to old Luthorcorp locations?”

“None,” J’onn answers. “No links between the property owners and known associates or former employees, nor any past ownership of these locations by the Luthors themselves.”

“Should I ask Lena?” Kara offers. Alex winces, immediately trying to straighten her face, but it’s too late. “Come on, Alex,” Kara sighs. “She’s trying, and she was there for us and me every step of the way so far.”

“Sure. Until she’s not,” Alex counters snarkily.

“Do you want me to ask her or not?”

“Not yet,” J’onn jumps in. “Not because of Lena herself, but because I don’t want to go down any more rabbit holes with this information until we can be certain it’s not a red herring. If you ask Lena and she starts digging into something, we may trigger some alarm bells.”

“Fair enough,” Kara replies directly to J’onn. She looks toward Alex. “Anything else?”

Alex folds her arms tightly across her chest. “Nope.”

****

Kara touches down in her apartment, and the moment she does, another tape catches her eye.

Wedged between _New Moon_ and _Eclipse_ on the bookshelf: 

“The One Where Kara Just Blurts It Out” 


	3. Acts of Service

“The One Where Kara Just Blurts It Out,” Kara reads. “Oh geez,” she mutters, punctuating the discovery with an eye roll. “What does that even _mean_?!” she huffs.

She puts the tape in and plunks down on the couch, fiddling with the corner of a blanket as the video begins to play.

“Oh, what a beautiful memory,” she deadpans as she, Lena, and Alex are trudging through a dark forest on the screen. They come to a stop and begin to bicker.

_“Good. What’s your real name?” Lena snarks, clearly not actually expecting an answer._

Kara briefly appreciates that this tape is getting to the point quickly as the video continues.

_“Lena...I think you know,” Kara replies, resigned._

_Lena watches Alex grimace and Kara cast her eyes towards the ground in a way that’s just a specific brand of awkward. “I think if you want me to believe that my best friend has been lying to me, you’re going to have to come out and say it.”_

_Before Kara gets the chance to answer, a familiar whoosh reminds her of the Kryptonian demons, and she rushes the group down the path towards Reign._

_Something isn’t right...everything happens too quickly. Lena runs ahead, rushing to Sam’s side, and Alex and Kara decide to go back for Julia later. The scene plays at normal speed, but Lena is dangling from Reign’s arm within seconds._

_“Take me. Take me instead, please!” Kara is crying out, desperate for Reign to release Lena._

_Reign - who looks like Sam at this moment, something Kara still finds painful to reconcile - looks toward Kara with malice. “You!” she begins. “You are nothing. You’ve always been nothing. Only one of equal strength can defeat me, and even the most prized of your precious Earthlings means nothing to me,” Reign seethes. She looks back at Lena. “Not even you,” she growls._

_Reign cocks her head to the side and lowers Lena ever so slightly before quickly flicking her wrist to crush Lena’s throat and snap her neck. The short gasp and resounding crack echoes off every wall in the cave and knocks Kara onto her knees as Lena falls to the ground like a ragdoll._

_“Nothing,” Reign sneers, advancing on Kara and Alex. Just as Reign’s hand closes on Kara’s throat to lift her from the ground, Lena’s body disappears into a digital blur followed shortly by Alex and then herself._

_Kara, back on the Legion ship, springs up from her chair. “Lena.” She moves to Lena’s side. “Lena, wake up,” she commands, pressing Lena’s shoulder._

_“Kara,” Mon-El says gently. Where was his beard?_

_“Wake up, Lena!” Kara sobs. “Wake up!”_

_“Kara,” Mon-El says again, firmly but kindly. “Lena didn’t make it out.”_

_The picture fades into snow, and the player clicks as playback stops._

“Mxy!” Kara roars. “Mxy, get in here, _now!_ ” She stands up, arms moving wildly at her sides. “How many times are you gonna make me watch Lena die? What’s the point of this?!”

There’s a quiet _pop_ as Mxy appears in the room. “Kara, sweetie, you don’t have to yell.”

“Answer me,” she orders through gritted teeth. 

“That was the last one, for a while at least. I needed you to be able to really appreciate what comes next!”

Kara’s eyes narrow. “Mxy,” she seethes, “what comes next?”

“Now now, dear, why would I ruin all the fun by telling you that? Come on, get back to work! Lots more to watch!” He raises his hand, preparing to snap.

“Mxy, don’t you-” he snaps, “dare,” Kara finishes as he disappears. “Jerk,” she mutters.

“I heard that!” Mxy whines as he reappears and disappears just as quickly. In the same place he had been standing, another tape has appeared.

“The One Where Kara Kills Lex”

Kara furrows her brow. _Kills_ Lex? She briefly considers the implications before replacing “The One Where Kara Just Blurts it Out” with the new arrival.

In the video, Kara is entering a room that looks completely unfamiliar. As she enters, Lena is pointing a gun at Lex - who is very much alive.

_“Well, well, well! If it isn’t the girl of the hour!” Lex announces, fake enthusiasm dripping from each word._

_“Get out of here, Supergirl,” Lena orders, commanding._

_Kara is unflinching, calmly defiant. “I’m not leaving you, Lena.”_

_Lena turns to look at Supergirl, gun still trained on Lex. “Go, Supergirl. I have to do this. The world isn’t safe as long as he’s still here.”_

_Supergirl moves between the gun and Lex. “Lena, listen to me very carefully. I’m not leaving, and while this isn’t the way I wanted to tell you, I need you to do something I know you won’t want to and trust me no matter what...okay?”_

_Lena stares somewhat blankly, eyes widening, but doesn’t move or speak._

_“Aww, what a touching moment,” Lex coos behind them, earning him a “SHUT UP!” from Kara and Lena in unison._

_Kara accepts Lena’s silence as an answer because they are actually running out of time. She releases a breath she didn’t realize she was holding, then speaks. “It’s me, Lena. I’m Kara.”_

_Lena’s face crumbles slightly as Lex sneers, “You just had to steal my thunder, didn’t you?”_

_Lena steps to the side a little to see his face, and anger washes over her features._

_Kara calls to her, “Lena...Lena! Hey, trust me. I got you. Always,” she promises. “Please, close your eyes.”_

_Lena has a staredown with Kara and, seemingly seeing the pleading on Kara’s face, she slowly closes her eyes. As soon as Kara sees them closed, she hugs her quickly and tightly, spinning them around. With a final movement settling Lena into her shoulder, she looks Lex in the eyes as she starts up her heat vision, and it's over before he can utter another word._

_With Lex’s lifeless body blurred in the background and Kara and Lena still locked in a desperate embrace, both of them crying and Kara’s hand cupping Lena’s cheek, the video shifts into high speed, a whirlwind of events - press conferences, DEO briefings, gatherings of the superfriends - flies by. Some are easier to make out than others, but one thing is clear: Lena handled the news well._

_Actually, two things are clear, the second of which being: Kara is not coping well. More scenes flash by: Kara drinking, Kara lying in bed in the middle of the day, Kara in therapy, Kara being reckless in fights. The video ends with a real-time, silent scene of Kara dumping her Supergirl suit on the DEO’s briefing table before flying out the window to the Fortress of Solitude._

“What?!” Kara wonders aloud.

What was Mxy trying to prove with that video? And just how long had he been watching her, anyway?

If Kara had been confused before, she was now lost and upside down. This video differed from her active attempts to change the past in a big way: the outcome of what was changed was only alluded to, rather than clear as day, and this time, the new timeline had a far more significant impact on Kara than Lena.

Was this a warning, she wondered? A subtle way to show her something to avoid in the inevitable next confrontation with Lex? One of Kara’s principles had always been not to kill, but could it be that Mxy was trying to show her she secretly wished for Lex’s death to avoid so much pain? Was this what she actually wanted?

Her stomach lurches. Lesson learned: no killing Lex, no matter what - not that she’d actively considered it in the first place.

A knock at her door interrupts her train of thought, and a quick glance lets her know it’s Lena. Did they have plans? “Just a second!” she calls out, whizzing around the room to tidy up and stow away Mxy’s questionable masterpieces.

Satisfied that the place is tidy enough, Kara goes to the door. “Hey!” Kara greets Lena brightly. “Did we have plans?” She moves aside for Lena to come in.

“Nope,” Lena answers through a coy smile. “But, since we got cut short earlier and I’m still not totally convinced there’s nothing wrong, I thought I might indulge your alleged love language of food. As much as I know you love to give me food, I know you prefer to receive it.”

Kara melts. “There’s a joke about being a giver somewhere in here, but I’m just going to accept your offering, say thank you, and be very grateful you’re here.”

“Would you say the same if I hadn’t shown up carrying all of your favorites that I ordered double of?”

Kara’s eyes bulge at the thought of _twice_ as many potstickers as usual, and she sheepishly says, “Of course, but I won’t deny extra potstickers sweetening the deal.”

Lena laughs, “I know, I’m just kidding. I would never ask you to choose between me and potstickers.”

Kara has already rummaged through one of the bags and shoved a potsticker in her mouth. “Mmm, might be closer than you think,” she says around it.

“I’m flattered,” Lena says with a hand over her heart. “Kitchen or living room?” Her hands are full, and she’s gesturing one hand, full of plates, towards the living room and another, holding silverware and chopsticks, towards the kitchen table.

Kara contemplates for a moment as she shoves another potsticker in her mouth. “Koohoo,” she manages.

Lena laughs. “I heard a ‘kuh’ in there, so I’m just going to assume you said kitchen.”

Lena’s airy laugh, combined with the easy banter between them, reminds Kara of warm honey and bright sunshine and nostalgia. Lena is waiting on a response, though, so Kara chews quickly. “Sorry. Yes. Kitchen.”

They sit down at the table, organizing dishes and containers and serving up plates. Kara had been so engrossed in the videos earlier that she hadn’t realized she was actually hungry for real. Knowing that she would soon be eating at an inhuman pace with a very full mouth, she decides to proactively get Lena talking so that she can chew quietly for a while (Lena wasn’t the only genius in the room, after all). “How was your day?”

“Productive, actually.” Lena stops there, and Kara groans internally.

“How so?” she manages.

Lena looks like she has a realization. “Sometimes I forget that you also remember all the details of our lives from before Lex got his dirty hands all over them. You remember Jess, my old assistant?”

“Oh, Jess!” Kara swoons overdramatically. “She was the best. Very scary but also very easily won over by coffee. And my charm, of course.”

“Who isn’t?” Lena drawls. “And she was the best. By far the best assistant I’ve had. She was capable of so much more, and I had been trying to help her achieve the things I knew she could before. I’d really like to continue that, if she even needs it, but...I haven’t been able to find her yet.”

Kara feels awestruck. “I think you have another love language you didn’t tell me about.”

Lena cocks her head. “Oh yeah, you think so, do you?”

“I do.”

“Well, care to guess?”

Kara smiles brightly, “How I didn’t realize before I don’t know, but you are, without a shadow of a doubt, a diehard ‘acts of service’ person.”

Lena practically guffaws. “Yeah, I guess now your mind is putting all the puzzle pieces together, isn’t it?” Lena’s smile turns fond.

Kara looks on at her warmly. “Yeah, I think it is.” 


	4. Power

Kara awakens Sunday morning to sunlight beaming through the window as her alarm, “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves, blares. She checks her phone and sees she’s already missed some messages.

 **Lena:** Thanks for letting me crash your alone time. Sorry I wouldn't let you fly me home, but George was on stand-by that whole time and I didn’t want it to be wasted.

Kara smiles at the memory. 

**Kara:** Please give George a night off one of these days and remember the power I have. You get the perks now :)

To Kara's surprise, Lena replies right away. 

**Lena:** Okay, okay. And I could never forget ;) 

Kara is staring at the message when she gets a text from Alex. She taps the notification as she tries to process the winky face from Lena. Typo?

 **Alex:** Hey you awake yet?

2 hours ago - negative. 

**Alex:** Call me when you wake up

Kara groans, the memory of their minor confrontation yesterday and her lack of awakeness pulling at the back of her mind. She taps the phone icon and calls Alex.

“God, finally,” Alex gripes. “Were you out on an all-night bender or what?”

“It’s only ten, Alex,” Kara huffs, wishing her eye roll could be fully appreciated.

“Yeah, yeah,” Alex dismisses. “Can you come over? We’ve got a lead and it’s the real deal this time.”

Kara doesn’t respond, and she hears an annoyed, “hello?!” as she bounds out the window. Moments later, she’s knocking on Alex’s door.

“Rude much?” Alex greets her as she opens the door. “You could have just said you were on your way like a normal person.” She’s already on the couch by the time she finishes her sentence, not bothering to look back at Kara as she enters.

Kara closes the door behind her. “Pfft. It’s much more fun to impress you with how quickly I can get here.”

Alex rolls her eyes. “I’ve known you for 17 years, Kara. The window of opportunity for impressing me with your speed has closed.”

Kara ignores her. “So, you said there was an update. What’s up? Where’s J’onn?”

“J’onn spontaneously went out to chase a lead, but the update is that we have a location. Or, well, we at least have a location that will hopefully be narrowed down to a one-mile radius we can easily cover once J’onn gets back.”

“Finally!” Kara exclaims, throwing both hands up the air. “Where? What’s the plan? When are we going?”

Alex laughs a little. “Easy, killer.”

Kara feels her eyes bulge. Alex calling her “killer” when talking about the hunt for Lex Luthor had to be a joke, right? Kara feels like she’s losing her grip on reality.

“We just need to wait for J’onn to get back. After that, if everything checks out, we go today. We have to be quick before Lex goes on the move again.” They spend the next fifteen minutes running through the details - the intel’s source, what they know about Lex’s plans, logistics. The fifteen minutes after that are spent with Kara pacing around and raiding Alex’s kitchen.

Alex groans from her perch on the couch. “Okay, Kara, you know what? Just go home. I can tell that you’re antsy, and J’onn probably needs a while. Plus, I’m overdue for grocery shopping, and my supplies can’t withstand your boredom right now. I’ll call you, okay?”

Kara doesn’t have to be told twice. “Okay,” she shrugs. “Love you!” she calls back over her shoulder as she whizzes to the door.

“Love you, too,” an amused Alex calls after her.

Back at her own apartment, Kara is greeted by the arrival of a new tape on the countertop.

“The One Where Lena’s Drunk”

Kara supposes she has nothing better to do and sets up the tape.

Kara and Lena are together in Sam’s kitchen, and Lena is very, very drunk. Kara remembers this night well; Lena convinced, and devastated, that she had been responsible for inadvertently hurting children. It was one of the only occasions where she’d seen Lena look so completely lost and beside herself.

“You know,” Lena slurs, “you’re terrible at hiding things from me.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Kara mutters. In reality, she’d continued tidying up and not really commented further, but here - that’s the inflection point, the exact moment in time where Kara could have made a different choice. “And actually, I wanna stop hiding from you. I want to be honest and stop keeping secrets.”

“I’m all ears,” Lena drawls, taking a gurgly sip from her wine glass.

“I’m Supergirl.”

Lena crinkles her brow and takes another slurpy sip. And then: she laughs hysterically. “You’re silly.”

“I’m serious, Lena.”

Before Lena can react again, Sam comes in. “Hey guys,” she greets awkwardly, her voice far louder than usual. “Kara, can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Sure,” she squeaks. She follows Sam around the corner into another room. “What’s up?”

“Look, Kara, I heard what you were telling Lena-”

“Sam, I-” Kara tries to interject.

Sam cuts her off with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “It’s none of my business, and we can forget this conversation ever happened. But...if you really want to share that truth with Lena, you need to have a serious conversation with her about it, and you need to do that when she’s not drowning in self-pity and wine.”

“She’ll never forgive me,” Kara comments meekly.

“She’d be even more crushed if you took advantage of an easy situation to avoid confronting reality,” Sam replies softly.

“I know,” Kara admits with a weak voice. “That wasn’t even my plan, she just made this comment about being terrible at hiding things, and it felt like a moment where I wouldn’t just be hiding something, I’d be lying. I can’t do that to her anymore.”

“I don’t think you understand how much Lena loves you, Kara. She’ll be hurt, but she’ll come back to you.”

Sam’s right: the tape continues, and a sober Lena is furious when she’s reminded of the confession, but not gut-wrenchingly broken like Kara remembers seeing her in the Fortress. After that, though, the video gets strange: the reality comes closer and closer to the timeline where Agent Liberty kidnapped Lena.

Lena and Kara work closely as partners, albeit less publicly. Nonetheless, this timeline’s outcome is similar: Kara is forced to reveal herself to save Alex, and Agent Liberty proceeds to hunt down everyone Kara loves one by one.

The video ends on a shot of Kara and Lena holding hands at a funeral (whose is unclear), and the ensuing white noise feels deafening. 

Kara decides that Mxy’s game sucks.

Despite her frustration at still having no clue why she has to watch all this, Kara is forced to again deal with the horrible position she put Lena in: an always-loving best friend and a combative, mistrusting, hot-and-cold Supergirl, revealed only years later to be the same person.

No wonder Lena felt shattered by it all.

Kara reaches for her phone, compelled to reach out to Lena but not really sure what to say. She settles on continuing their previous conversation about her powers.

 **Kara:** Did you know I could also phase through walls if I would just practice it??

The knot in her stomach when Lena doesn’t reply right away feels painfully human. Not that she really cared about Lena’s reaction to that piece of information, specifically. Actually, no, Kara had to admit: she was just looking for some kind of comfort. Some sort of sign that she and Lena were good. Sure, nothing had actually changed in the short time since Lena’s last text that _Kara_ hadn’t replied to, but that was beside the point, Kara argued to herself. 

Thoughtlessly, she’s standing in front of her open refrigerator door yet again, looking longingly at its contents (or lack thereof). The kombucha taunts her from the back corner, and she settles on a questionably fresh string cheese stick from the drawer as she trudges back to the couch.

Fortunately, Alex calls just as she’s taking the last bite of her cheese, and she’s out the window without even answering the call. She probably _should_ have answered, as that missing information would have led to her going to J’onn’s (where she was supposed to be) instead of Alex’s (which was definitely empty) on the first try. Well, what good is superspeed if you can’t flex it every now and then, right?

When she sees Lena as soon as she walks through the door, that very-human knot in her stomach returns, and the longing for comfort she’d felt just a few minutes earlier had become a bizarre mixture of guilt and something like...a gravitational pull. Or maybe a tractor beam. Now, she couldn’t so much as look in Lena’s direction, let alone make eye contact with her.

And, yes, Kara was reflected enough to recognize that blatantly ignoring someone with whom she had a very delicate relationship at the moment was probably not ideal, especially since they’d need to be in a place of trust if they were going to take down Lex. Still, she was also childish enough to justify it because Lena was the last to not reply in their text conversation. 

That doesn’t make it sting any less when she sees Lena’s pained expression as her eyes follow her around the room.

Kara slips into business-only Supergirl mode. “Where did we get the intel? Are we sure it’s credible?”

Alex is the first to address Kara’s question. “Lillian, of all people.”

“Lillian _Luthor_?” Kara practically spits the name and has the decency to, at least, wince. “Sorry, Lena. That was supposed to be a dig at Lex.”

Lena waves dismissively as J’onn speaks up. “It’s credible. Lena was able to track down her whereabouts, and we paid her a visit. Once I restored her memories from before the Crisis, she was conflicted, but ultimately gave us the information we needed to fill in the last puzzle pieces of Lex’s plan.”

Kara is visibly skeptical, and her gaze lingers on Lena for longer than it should have. “And you’re sure she was truthful?”

J’onn looks at Lena and continues. “The only emotion I sensed was regret. She was telling the truth.”

Nia finally speaks for the first time. “What about the Leviathan bottle?”

Lena crosses her arms tensely. “It’s with Lex.”

“Great,” Nia comments, dejected.

“The bottle’s just one piece, though,” Kara points out. “What does he even want with it? If he just wanted Leviathan out of the way, he could have left the bottle with Brainy.”

Lena scoffs. “Sometimes, Lex does things just so he can say he knew your plan all along and look like the smartest person in the room. He usually is anyway, but anything to win a pissing contest.”

Alex retakes control of the room. “As much as I love the study into the psychology of a narcissistic madman, we need to get a move on before Lillian’s intel goes stale.”

The next minutes are a blur, a chorus of planning, plotting, and scheduling of who will do what and when. The group begins to disperse, and Kara moves towards the window to take off, but Lena’s voice stops her.

“Kara, wait!”

Kara tenses and spins on her heel. Finally making direct eye contact with Lena gives her a tight, warm feeling in her stomach, like when you have a good sex dream about someone and then see them in person for the first time. Wait, what? All she can manage is a short, “Hmm?”

“Are you okay? You seem really...tense.”

Kara laughs awkwardly. “Of course! Of course. Just...really ready for this to be done.”

“I know the feeling,” Lena agrees sardonically. “Anyway, not that I’m not interested in how you are, but um...I made some more upgrades to the kryptonite suit since it was a rush job last time. Not up to par with my designs yet, but it’ll do. Odds are Lex has used the last couple months to build out his arsenal, so...better safe than sorry.”

Lena’s efforts make Kara feel warm all over. She grabs the small case and feels like she’s been shocked as their fingertips graze. “Thanks.”

Lena’s eyes are fixated on a distant spot on the floor. “Of course. I only just got you back, can’t go losing you now.”

Before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s pulling Lena into a hug and saying, “That will never happen again.”

Lena sighs and relaxes a little. “Good luck, Supergirl.”

“See you soon.”

A minute later, Kara’s flying through the air at about half speed to meet Nia at their rendezvous point on time when a voice breaks her focus.

“Kara, my love! Whatcha doin’?”

“Mxy?!” she shouts, disgusted. “What are you even doing here?”

“Well, I do believe I made quite clear you still had some work to do at home!”

“Not now, Mxy! Can’t you see I’m _busy_?!”

Kara hasn’t stopped or even slowed down, so Mxy’s flying parallel underneath her - and face up. Of course. “Kara, pumpkin, what could possibly be more important than securing your happy future?!” He sounds horrified.

“Gotta say, catching Lex Luthor is pretty high on the list of things that will make me happy right now.”

Mxy scoffs. “Ugh, him again? Seriously? That’s what’s stopping you from investing in your own happiness? You really need to work on self-care, dear. Lex Luthor is _so_ last season.”

“Can you please go away? I promise to watch your filmmaking efforts later, but right now, I have more urgent matters to attend to!”

Mxy dismisses her. “Pfft, please.” He snaps his fingers, and Kara hears a man screaming. “Well, go get him then!”

Kara looks sharply to the left in time to see Lex Luthor himself falling right past her, hurtling towards the ground at high speed. “Mxy, no! What are you doing! Put him back!”

“ _Kara_ ,” he whines petulantly, “that takes too long. Why go through all that work when he’s right there?”

“Because we have to make sure anyone he was working with is stopped, too!”

Mxy crosses his arms. “That’s _boring_.”

“Can’t you just leave him where he was and, I dunno, have him pass out or something? Then we can catch him right away and do the recon we need, and it’ll be over.” Mxy seems to think it over, but Kara doesn’t bother waiting for his response. “Maybe, like, now? I’m pretty sure he’s about to hit the ground, and I really don’t feel like saving him.”

Mxy huffs. “ _Fine._ ” He snaps his fingers. “He’s waiting very patiently for you at...well, saying that out loud is too much work.” He snaps again. “Coordinates are on a slip of paper tucked into your bra. Toodles!”

Before she can even chastise him again, he’s gone.

Luckily for Kara, the rest of the team chalks it up to good luck (bordering on too-good-to-be-true until a lot of recon work is conducted to prove otherwise) when they arrive at the location Kara “found” with x-ray vision and Lex is asleep in the bunker, guarded only by two barely-armed henchmen in armor laced with kryptonite. A scan of the room reveals a lead-lined safe, the mere presence of which almost guarantees it’s hiding the Leviathan bottle from x-ray-vision-equipped eyes. An FBI team arrives soon after and opens the safe; the bottle is handed off to Brainy, still acting director of the DEO after returning to Lex under the guise of “accepting” he’d made a mistake by attempting to undermine him.

Less than two hours later, Alex, Kelly, Nia, Kara, and Lena are huddled around a table at Al’s Dive Bar and ordering their second round of drinks.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Kelly cuts in, disbelieving. “So after months of threats and scheming, he was just, like...passed out?”

Kara nods dramatically. “I wouldn’t believe it either if I hadn’t seen it myself.”

“Now that Lillian’s turned herself in as well, I’m once again the last Luthor standing. Or at least the last Luthor not behind bars.” Lena sounds as if she can hardly believe the words coming out of her own mouth.

“It’s like Bizarro World,” Nia comments off-handedly.

“NO!” Kara and Alex cry out in unison. “Sorry,” Alex continues. “We just had an...incident with an unhinged Supergirl clone a few years ago. Bad memories.”

“Oops. Shots to make it better?” Nia offers.

“I like the way you think. Shots!” Alex agrees.

This was going to be a long night, Kara thought, but if you can’t ignore a fifth-dimensional pest to celebrate the takedown of your arch-nemesis, when can you? 

She’s walking to the bar, calling out, “I got this round!” before Kelly or Lena has a chance to protest.

She’s waiting at the bar when two things happen simultaneously:

She sees Mxy appear in a corner across the room, tapping the nonexistent watch on his wrist.

Lena arrives at the bar, pulling up the stool next to her and ordering two shots.

“Don’t look at me like that. Taking down Lex brought us back together, so it’s only appropriate that we properly celebrate actually accomplishing that.”

Yep, this was going to be one of those nights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I adore Jon Cryer, but I am so over Lex Luthor and you won't catch me complaining if his ass just suddenly vanishes next season, so this was absolutely wish fulfillment


	5. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

“Hold on, hold on, I got one!” Alex announces, standing from her chair and sticking her beer bottle out to propose a toast. “Here’s to the bull that roamed the woods, never did anybody too damn much good,” she pauses, earning a _boo_ from Kara. “But if it weren’t for the bull and his long red rod, what would we do for beef, by god?”

Nia almost showers the table with her drink as she barely suppresses what seems to be a snort. “ _That’s_ what you wanna toast to? Bulls and their dicks? The irony.”

“Hey, I don’t hear anyone else offering up alternatives!” Alex defends, looking forlorn as she takes a long swig of her beer and flops into her chair.

“I’ve got one,” Lena offers quietly. “Here’s to the superfriends taking down the most persistently annoying and universe-altering bad guy yet. Lex Luthor, long may he rot.” She raises her glass to the center of the table as she finishes bitterly.

“Long may he rot,” the group echoes in unison, glasses and bottles clinking.

“Last Luthor standing,” Lena sighs.

“Well, I mean, you’re _clearly_ the best Luthor, if that helps!” Nia offers cheerfully.

“Here, here!” Kara agrees, clinking her glass against Nia’s. “Totally the best,” she seconds, quietly and to Lena alone, nudging their shoulders together affectionately.

Alex hops out of her chair. “Anyone up for a game of pool?” She looks pointedly at J’onn. “Not you. It’s no fun when you... _mind-read_ all my strategies!” she complains, gesturing wildly with her arms as she attempts to explain herself.

J’onn laughs heartily, raising his hands in surrender as the rest of the group eyes one another surreptitiously. 

“Cowards,” Alex drolls.

“Come on, babe, I’ll play with you,” Kelly says, placatingly rubbing Alex’s forearm. The two head to the pool table.

“ _So_ , Lena,” Nia begins, sounding like a teenager ready to gossip. “How does it feel to be back on the right side of the law?” Nia winces, cringing at herself. “Sorry, that was a really horrible joke…” she trails off, throwing in an awkward laugh before continuing. “I mean, I just meant, how does it feel to be back with the superfriends? You know, after Kara v Lena twenty-nineteen through twenty-twenty. Geez, Nia, not better…”

Lena laughs softly. “I get what you mean. It’s...nice,” she supplies. “Though I wouldn’t say I’m totally back with the superfriends,” she finishes, giving a pointed look towards Alex.

“Oh, she’ll come around!” Kara claims, optimistic as ever. “You know Alex. She has a mandatory cooling-off period. You know, like when you wanna hire somebody who used to work for your auditor.”

J’onn and Nia look at Kara like she’s sprouted a second head, but Lena seems giddy. “Did you just reference corporate regulations?” Lena asks, surprised.

Kara shrugs. “I picked it up while researching that piece on Lex a few years ago. Thought I might try speaking your boardroom language for a change.”

Nia actually spits her drink this time. “Bedroom language?!”

Kara’s eyes widen. “ _Board_ room language, Nia! Board!”

Nia looks sheepish. “I’m really batting a thousand in this conversation, aren’t I?” She finishes her drink in a long, slow gulp. “Sorry, Lena. I’m sort of a fangirl and we never really worked together before, so, you know. I’m nervous or whatever. Another round, anyone?” she offers as she stands up.

“Ohh, no, not me,” J’onn begs. “I can’t keep up with all of you, and it’s best I don’t try!”

Kara practically _cackles_ before collecting herself. “I’ll take one. And Lena, too. Right, Lena? What were you saying about properly celebrating?”

Lena rolls her eyes softly. “Sure, I’ll take another one. Thank you, Nia.”

Nia beams. “Sure. One more round, comin’ up!”

“Now that we’re in a smaller group,” Lena begins quietly, looking around the bar for emphasis, “I wanted to thank you, J’onn.”

His eyebrows pull together in confusion. “For…?”

“For earlier. For bringing back some semblance of my mother and for your trust, although I recognize that wasn’t something I’ve earned from you yet.”

“‘It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them,’” J’onn quotes.

“Huh?” Kara wonders before loudly taking the last sip of her drink.

“Confucius,” Lena clarifies. She looks back to J’onn. “Nonetheless, thank you. I hope to really earn that over time.”

“I’m sure you will,” J’onn replies confidently. “Just as I hope all of us will soon earn yours in return.”

Lena shifts in her chair, looking uncomfortable. Without thinking, Kara slings an arm over her shoulder. “One day at a time, right, Lena?”

Lena visibly relaxes. “Right,” she breathes out. “One day at a time.”

“Well, ladies, if you’ll excuse me,” J’onn starts, standing up and grabbing his jacket, “I’ll be seeing my way, very quietly, out now. Nia has one more drink than she got from orders at this table, and I really can’t bear to decline it to her face,” he jokes.

“Toodeloo,” Kara singsongs, waving with her free hand as she unconsciously tightens the other around Lena’s shoulders.

“Good night, J’onn,” Lena says with a nod, earning a nod from J’onn in return.

“Hey, where are you going?!” Alex shouts from the pool table.

“Good night, Alex!” J’onn calls loudly over his shoulder, already pushing out the door. 

“Bye to you, too, J’onn!” Nia huffs as she places the newly acquired drinks on the table and plops into her chair. After redirecting her attention from faux-forlornly looking at the door to the table, her eyes land on Kara and Lena. “I see we’re still in boardroom talk mode.”

Kara furrows her brow. “What?”

Lena giggles. “Well, Nia, you know what they say. Lex can take the CEO out of the boardroom, but he can’t take the boardroom out of the CEO.” She pauses, looking as if she’s searching around the room as her eyebrow creeps slowly higher. “Well, I guess they don’t say that specifically about Lex. Or CEOs and boardrooms. Drinks?”

Nia lights up. “Yes, drinks!” she agrees, sliding the glasses around the table. “I got one for J’onn, too, so I guess that’s Kara’s now.”

Kara grins slyly but goofily, her arm leaving Lena’s shoulders to greedily move the two glasses towards her with both hands. “Well, if you can’t double-fist it on a night like tonight, when can ya?”

“Oh, Alex is going to be _thrilled_ ,” Kelly says, suddenly appearing behind Kara. “You’re up. She just beat me twice, and it’s your turn to be her ego prop,” she jokes.

“Pffft,” Kara dismisses. “I ain’t scurred,” she claims, nearly knocking her chair to the ground as she tries to walk off with her ankle still hooked around the leg of the chair. 

Kelly smirks. “Good luck,” she offers, dropping back in her seat. “So, what did I miss?”

Kara saunters over to the pool table where Alex is waiting. “Hey, Oscar,” she greets.

“Oscar?”

Kara rolls her eyes. “The grouch, duh.”

“You’re such a dork,” Alex teases. “You’re up. Best outta 3?” She offers Kara a pool cue.

Kara lamely holds up her hands, a drink still in each. “One game, all or nothing.”

Alex scoffs. “Ready to rip off the band-aid and endure a swift defeat, huh?”

“You wish,” Kara replies easily, grabbing the cue. “I’ll even let you break.”

“What an honor,” Alex jokes, setting her beer down behind her. “No super...skills, or whatever!” she warns.

“Yeah, yeah. Just break.”

Alex gives her a side-eye. “You in a hurry?”

Kara crosses her arms over her chest and shifts her feet. “Nope. Just know the rules after seventeen years of knowing you, just like my superspeed no longer impresses you.”

As Alex sets up to break, Kara tunes her hearing into the table.

_“No, I had no idea you didn’t know!” Kelly says lightly._

_“Not a clue,” Lena responds._ Kara hears the ice clink in her glass as she swirls it before bringing it to her lips.

_“I’m sorry, Lena. I didn’t know you weren’t in the loop. You and Kara were always so close.”_

“Hello, Earth to Krypton-brain!” Alex’s annoyed voice interrupts Kara’s eavesdropping. “You’re stripes.”

Kara surveys the table, noticing that Alex has already pocketed two balls. She moves around to the opposite side of the table, lining up her first shot and efficiently sinking two herself, the cue ball teetering precariously on the edge of the corner pocket. She moves to the corner to line up her next shot and briefly tunes into the table once again, this time hearing nothing but Lena and Kelly chuckling as Nia tells a story about a mishap Andrea had in the office recently. 

“ _Today_!” Alex demands.

Kara bristles, tightening her grip on the cue and taking her shot, immediately sinking the remainder of her balls with a series of perfectly executed bounces.

“Hey, we said no super skills!” Alex whines.

“Physics isn’t a super skill, Alex,” Kara says with a shrug. “Eightball, side pocket,” she declares, tapping the pocket with her cue. She sinks the ball effortlessly. “I win,” she says simply, walking back around the table to reclaim her drinks.

“You suck, you know?” Alex grumbles.

“And you’ve been over here for a really long time. Come on, we’re celebrating as a _group_ , remember?”

Alex huffs. “Yeah, and what’s with you, then? Don’t think I didn’t notice you making that ‘I’m-using-my-superhearing’ face earlier.”

Kara gulps. “Pfft, no, you didn’t.”

“Pfft, yes, I did!” Alex mocks. “You’re edgy today.”

“Look who’s talking! And...I just had a weird morning,” Kara defends lamely, drinking from the straws in both drinks at once. 

“With Lena?” Alex prods.

“What?!” Kara huffs out. “No.” Okay, that came out even lamer than her last line.

“Kara…”

“I wasn’t with Lena!” she exclaims. “Promise.”

“So then why are you acting like you did that time Mom caught you ta-”

“Nope!” Kara interjects. “Let’s not go there.” She takes a deep breath and slides onto one of the stools behind her. 

Alex moves onto the stool next to her. “So?”

Kara sighs. “So...you remember the last time Mxy showed up?”

“And you had a disturbing movie night where you tried to literally change the timeline to get Lena back? Hard to forget.” Alex looks away and takes a drink.

“Right, yeah. Well, Mxy started having more tapes randomly appear in my apartment recently.”

Alex swirls her stool around to fully face Kara at what could easily pass for super speed. “I’m sorry, what? And you just thought to tell me _now_?”

“I’m not actively doing anything! I don’t even really get it. All these tapes...they’re like, things that really happened, but with minor differences. Some of them don’t even make sense.”

“Such as…?”

“Such as Beebo showing up to Lillian Luthor’s trial and wreaking havoc on National City.”

Alex chuckles. “Legends.”

“Exactly!” Kara agrees enthusiastically. “Anyway, I guess the gist seems to be the same as the last time Mxy showed up...me trying to tell Lena the truth sooner to avoid hurting her. But sometimes the consequences are horrible and...well.”

“Well…?” Alex prods.

“Well, I had to watch Lena die two very dramatic deaths and it...uhh. Just made me think, is all. All day today, I was, like, desperate to be in constant contact with her.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm? That’s all you have to say after I tell you a fifth-dimensional troll is having me sit through alternate realities on tape?”

Alex sighs. “If I had to come up with a list of two of the people I trust least, Lena Luthor and Mister Mxyzptlk would both be near the top.”

“Really? First of all, a _fifth-dimensional troll_! That was the point!” Kara scoffs. “Second of all, of all the supervillains and truly evil people and aliens in the world, Lena makes it to the top of your list?”

“If the shoe fits,” she mutters into her beer bottle.

“That’s not fair, Alex.”

“She tried to kill you, Kara!”

“Because _you_ wouldn’t listen to me and refused to give me time to talk to her! She thought we were-”

Alex puts her hand up. “Okay, stop. I know it’s probably unfair to say she’s at the top of that list, but...she hurt you. A lot. And all of us, really. That’s not something I can easily forget. It’s basically my job as your big sister.”

Kara smiles. “I know, and that’s one of the things I love the most about you - how much you love me and want to protect me. But, Alex, I’m really happy to have Lena back. And we shouldn’t forget that we hurt her, too.”

Alex works her bottom lip between her teeth, eyes shifting back and forth between Kara and Lena. “I don’t trust her.”

“You don’t have to,” Kara offers agreeably. “Yet. But I do, and I know you trust me. We can work on you trusting Lena over time.”

“Hey!” Nia’s booming voice breaks in from across the now nearly-empty bar. “You guys are obviously done, so are you coming back or what?”

“In a second!” Alex calls out. “I wanna hear more about these tapes,” she demands, gaze returning to Kara as she hops off her stool.

“Later,” Kara promises, trailing behind Alex as they move back to the table.

…..

If you were to ask Kara, she’d be happy to inform you that Alex, Kelly, and Nia are very dull and lame grown-ups. They called it “wanting to be functional tomorrow,” but Kara calls it “stupid.” Who needs to function on Sundays?

Okay, maybe Kara is tipsy...but so is Lena, which means she’s at least not drinking alone.

Ten minutes after the Loser Squad (as Kara has now officially titled the trio who left early) departs Al’s, she and Lena are getting some pretty sour looks from the bartender who clearly wants to go home - which is how they find themselves walking to Kara’s apartment at nearly midnight.

“George could have picked us up, and we could have gone to mine, you know.”

Kara scoffs. “First of all, I can literally fly and don’t need a driver.” Lena rolls her eyes. “Seeeecond of all, I’m pretty sure I could drink every drop of liquor in your apartment and not feel a thing, so unless you’re planning on drinking alone, we’re going to my place.”

Lena laughs softly. “Fair enough.”

Soon after, they’re pouring their next round in Kara’s kitchen, and Kara suddenly remembers what she was doing before she left earlier, the tapes in the living room practically illuminated with neon signs saying, “LOOK AT ME, LENA!”

Her eyes flit rapidly back and forth between Lena and the living room, desperately trying to figure out how to either hide the tapes or explain the entire situation - which, well, considering Lena’s thoughts and feelings about lying, didn’t seem very appealing when also considering Kara hadn’t yet spilled the beans on her actual previous attempts to alter history to avoid hurting Lena. “Do you, uh, need to go to the bathroom?” she offers awkwardly.

“Nope, I’m good. I went right before we left Al’s, remember? My human bladder isn’t _that_ bad.”

“Right, of course,” Kara tries to say dismissively. “Just checking.” 

“Thanks for your concern,” Lena says teasingly, moving to the couch. Kara nearly chokes as Lena sits down. “You good?”

Kara sticks out what she has to admit is an incredibly dorky-looking thumbs up as she moves to join Lena on the couch.

Lena, who, of course, sees the tapes _immediately_ and says, “‘The One Where Beebo Gets Involved?’ What is this, and why do you have VHS tapes out?” 


	6. Darling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kara should really tidy up her apartment more often eh?

Kara is pretty sure she’s dead inside. “Betamax.”

“What?”

“It’s Betamax,” Kara clarifies again. 

Lena snickers. “Okay. What is this, and why do you have Betamax tapes out?”

Kara grumbles. “Please don’t be mad,” she pleads, noting that Lena stiffens immediately, a stark contrast to her amusement after finding the tapes.

“That’s usually a preface to something I’m not going to like.”

“Wellllll…” Kara draws out, not sure how to continue. All the way back to her “movie night” with Mxy? Only here with the tapes that just appeared? Lena clears her throat audibly, and Kara makes a snap decision, taking a long sip. Time for liquid courage. “Do you remember that night I came to your apartment and said something like if you chose to work with Lex-”

“That you would do everything in your power to stop me just like you would any other villain? Rings a bell.” Lena’s voice is even, not menacing like Kara would have expected (or deserved, she thinks ruefully).

“Yeah, that one.” Kara starts looking around the room. “Well, I didn’t just come over there out of the blue. Some other...stuff had happened that night.”

Lena lifts a brow. “Stuff?”

“Yeah, stuff,” Kara says, almost petulantly. “Do you remember Mister Mxyzptlk?”

“Not personally, but I remember you telling me about him. But that was, like, three years ago.”

Kara takes a larger gulp of her drink than she probably should. “Yeah, right. It was a while ago. Anyway, he was punished for all the crazy stuff he was doing, and he had to go around righting all his wrongs, one of those wrongs being attempting to force me to, uh, marry him. So he came back that night.”

Lena’s eyes widen. “And what? Retracted his marriage proposal and said he was sorry?” she jokes.

Kara laughs awkwardly. “Not exactly. He had to...well, he had to help me with something. It just so happened that the only thing I needed help with at that moment was...uh, well. You.”

Kara watches Lena’s jaw clench and unclench in slow motion before she finally responds. “What did you-”

“Nothing!” Kara squeaks. “Nothing actually happened or changed, I promise. But, well, he sort of...he let me try telling you that I was Supergirl myself.”

“What does that mean, exactly?”

“Well,” Kara sighs, “I thought about some different times that I had the chance to tell you the truth, or should have...and he sent me back to those points in time to try again.” Lena’s sitting silently, looking somewhat shell-shocked, so Kara continues. “It was...horrible. But it made me realize that, no matter what, someone would have gotten hurt. Usually you,” Kara finishes sadly.

“So you...what? Had a night of It’s A Wonderful Life-ing around the timeline and then just left everything as it was?”

“Honestly...yeah. There was never a ‘right time,’” she says with air quotes, “and it always either hurt your feelings tremendously or got somebody killed. Even me.”

Lena looks horrified. “Wait, are you saying that you told me you were Supergirl so I just ki-”

“No!” Kara interrupts. “Oh, God, no. But uh, well. Once, I told you without thinking about the other events happening around that time and...when you went to Metropolis to talk with Sam about it, you weren’t in National City to save me with the kryptonite suit in time, and you know. Dead me.”

Lena takes a large swig of her wine as she tries to connect the dots. “And this tape is...one of those attempts? Or what?”

“No, actually. I tried a few points in time, but I don’t have recordings of them. These tapes just randomly appeared this week.”

“Why?”

“I wish I knew. Honestly, I had kind of forgotten about the whole thing because I didn’t change anything, and you still...hated me for a while. So then the new tapes appeared, and it was pretty confusing.”

“Did you watch it?” Lena presses, gesturing to the Beebo tape.

“Yes, but I still don’t understand why it’s here. I mean, I know it’s from Mxy, but it was just...weird.”

Lena takes a deep breath. “Can I watch it?”

Kara is pretty sure her gulp can be heard from space. “Sure.”

As it turns out, the tape isn’t much longer than the point where Kara stopped it. The chaos created by the utterly unexpected arrival of Beebo, in contrast to Metallo’s relatively unsurprising appearance in reality, puts Lena on high enough alert that she figures out Kara’s identity herself. Before they’re able to discuss it, though, the world literally ends.

Lena practically guffaws, a small amount of wine spilling out of her glass from the movement. “Okay, I knew the Legends had their whole ‘screwing things up for the better’ schtick, but I didn’t know they literally ran the risk of _ending the world_.”

“Yeah. No idea why I needed to see this reality, though,” Kara shrugs. “Maybe I’m supposed to be thankful the world didn’t end?”

“Maybe. What about this one?” She gestures to the third tape on the table. “‘The One Where Lena Says It’s Okay.’”

“Yeeeah…you know how I mentioned most of my attempts wound up with someone getting hurt? In this one, it’s you. You, uh, die, actually.”

Lena is aghast. “What?!”

“Yeah. This one has me telling you when I came for you and Mon-El on the Daxam ship. Guess Rhea overheard and decided you were important enough that she could use your death against me. It was hard to watch.” Kara picks absently at lint on the couch cushions as she speaks.

“Oh,” Lena says plainly. “I guess I don’t need to see that.”

Kara decides to try to lighten the mood. “Zero stars out of five, would not recommend. Depressing and unsatisfying ending.”

“Thank you for telling me.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Kara says, hoping she manages to effectively communicate how she feels with her tone as the effects of her last few drinks seeming to hit all at once. She shakes her head. “Not about the dying, I mean. About all of it.”

Lena downs the rest of her wine in a few large gulps. “I can’t really say I blame you, darling. We weren’t even speaking the first time and you can hardly be faulted for taking some time to process this new batch.”

 _Darling_. Kara hadn’t heard that in many long months. “Yeah...and I guess we have some catching up to do about what happened while we were, uh, not talking.” She follows suit and finishes her own drink.

“Right,” Lena smirks, “why don’t we start on that instead of discussing alternate universe deaths and apocalypses, hmm? Refill?”

“Refill,” Kara agrees.

Lena plods into the kitchen, her hip bumping into the table (in a way that Kara assumes probably hurt a little bit) serving as a reminder that they’re both quite drunk...and she just took a considerable risk by choosing that moment to tell Lena about Mxy. She remembers Sam in the “The One Where Lena Gets Drunk” tape and gnaws on her lip, feeling guilty.

“Well, well, well,” Lena’s voice interrupts. “Seems like your fifth-dimensional friend didn’t like our ‘instead of alternate universes’ idea.” She’s holding a tape in her hand and waving it a little.

Kara grumbles, throwing her head back on the back of the couch. “Not again,” she whines.

“‘The One in the Elevator,’” Lena reads from the side of the tape before tucking it under her arm and making her way back to the couch with their refilled glasses. “How about one you haven’t seen?” 

Before Kara can object, Lena’s handed her both glasses and already set about putting in the tape.

“Gimme,” Lena commands, reaching for her glass as she plops on the couch next to Kara before twisting and draping her legs over Kara’s lap. “You really need a bigger couch.”

Kara doesn’t reply, absentmindedly pulling Lena’s legs closer to her stomach as the tape starts playing, showing Kara and Lena in an elevator.

_“Supergirl went behind my back and used my personal relationships against me. That’s like something my mother would do. She crossed a line. I can never trust her again.”_

_Just then, the elevator lurches, throwing both women off balance as Lena’s bag drops to the floor._

_“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Kara snarls, mashing buttons on the elevator’s control panel to no avail._

_Lena fruitlessly pulls at the doors and huffs. “Why don’t you call Alex? Maybe she can call it up from outside?”_

_“Good idea.” Kara fishes her phone out of her pocket, then frowns. “No service.” She quickly shoves the phone back in her pocket and moves to the side, gripping the railing on the wall._

“Oh no,” Kara laments with a groan.

“What? Have you seen this?”

“No, I just...hate elevators,” Kara quickly clarifies.

_“Fantastic,” Lena snarks. “Well,” she begins as she mashes the emergency button, “nothing to do now but wait.”_

_“Yep,” Kara huffs, her right side now almost completely flush with the wall._

_“Kara?” Lena’s voice is dripping with concern. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”_

_“No,” Kara replies shakily. “I...ah...don’t really like elevators. Stopped elevators.” She exhales through pursed lips in an attempt to steady herself. “Small, stuck spaces. Not my thing,” she finishes, sliding to the floor as her breathing gets louder and more rapid._

_“Okay,” Lena says soothingly as she awkwardly maneuvers to the floor in front of Kara. “Okay, it’s all going to be fine. Look at me,” she commands with a soft smile. “Five, four, three, two, one. Five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, one thing you can taste. What can you see?”_

_Kara’s eyes, previously clenched shut, open slowly and take inventory of her surroundings. “I see you. I see a pint of ice cream in the corner. I see my phone on the floor. The elevator buttons lit up. The closed doors,” she finishes anxiously._

_“That’s good,” Lena affirms. “Now, what can you feel?”_

_“I feel your hands on my arm. I feel the floor under me. I feel the wall behind me. I feel the pen in my pocket that I’m sitting on now.”_

_Lena smiles a little._

_“Lena,” Kara says shakily. “I’m so sorry,” she finishes with a gulp._

_“Kara, please, don’t be sorry, it’s perf-”_

_“No,” Kara interrupts, sticking an arm up and behind her to grab the railing and pull herself off the floor. “I’m…” she takes a long, deep breath. “I’m sorry about this.”_

_She moves to the door, wedging her fingers in the cracks between the panels. Then, as Lena looks on with confusion, Kara forcefully pulls the door open, the metal warping in half-moon shapes around her hands as she overpowers the safety mechanism to release the doors and reveal the hallway outside, positioned about halfway up in the doorway._

_As Lena stands there, slack-jawed and seemingly attempting to say something, Kara hovers with her arms above her head to push against the ceiling and move the elevator flush with the floor outside. Kara is outside the door immediately._

_“I didn’t want you to find out like this.”_

_“Or maybe at all,” Lena manages, lips pursed and jaw tight._

_Without another word, Kara speeds down the hall and out the window._

_The picture goes into a split-screen, following Kara as she shoots straight up, hovering high above Alex’s building and taking deep, steadying breaths; and Lena as she strides quickly to Alex’s door, rings the bell, and leaves the snacks with Ruby with only a few short words before seeing herself out._

_As Kara floats motionlessly on the left side of the screen, eyes closed and breathing deeply, the right side of the screen shows Lena making a call as she heads down the stairs of the building and into a waiting car._

_A melancholic orchestral piece begins to play as the picture wipes to show only Kara, tightening on her face as a quiet gasp and sniffle break through the music before quickly zooming in a straight line to a shot of Lena in the car far below, crying softly._

The picture fades to snow, and the player clicks off.

Kara and Lena sit speechlessly in their same positions on the couch, Kara’s hand having absentmindedly wrapped softly around Lena’s exposed ankle.

It’s Lena who breaks the silence first. “That certainly played out differently than I remember.”

Kara hums in agreement. “These tapes just keep getting weirder, though. That one was all…” she trails off, stopping to gesture goofily at the TV with her hands, “dramatic. And with no real ending.”

Lena turns, twisting her body so that she’s fully facing Kara. Kara’s not sure how long she’d been rubbing the pad of her thumb on Lena’s ankle before the movement draws her attention to it.

“No ending?” Lena hiccups. “Sorry,” she says sheepishly.

Kara chuckles. “The other ones showed or at least implied the consequences of the change. I mean, I guess in this one, you were pretty pissed, and I was practically breathing into a paper bag in the sky, but that doesn’t say much.”

“At least neither of us died,” Lena teases with a grin, bringing her glass to her lips.

“That’s true. Definitely not in the mood for mourning at,” Kara says as she glances at her phone, “quarter to one in the morning.”

“Shh,” Lena slurs. “Don’t remind me.”

Kara looks aghast. “Why?! Are you working tomorrow?” she demands.

Lena rolls her eyes playfully. “You forget that I don’t really have a job in this reality.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Mhm,” Lena hums. “Or, actually...maybe I do now. Let’s not change the subject, Kara.” She pauses, then continues with a more serious, but gentle tone. “How much of that was real?”

“I guess everything until the elevator stopped,” Kara answers. She punctuates the sentence with _duh_ in her head, then shakes her head just a little as if to physically clear the thought away.

“That’s not what I meant,” Lena retorts, unsteadily leaning to the side to place her glass on the coffee table before sitting up straight to place both hands on Kara’s forearm. “Do you really get panic attacks like that?”

“Sometimes,” Kara admits, bashfully fixing her stare on the hand still set on Lena’s ankle. “It’s more about the small spaces. Knowing that it would be physically possible to get out but that there would be major consequences to doing so...doesn’t help.”

“And revealing your identity by ripping a metal door open to escape would certainly carry some consequences,” Lena realizes.

“Bingo,” Kara says sullenly.

Lena tightens her hands on Kara’s forearm ever so slightly. “Does it happen a lot?”

Kara sighs heavily. “Luckily, it doesn’t. Just a couple of times. But whenever it does...it’s like being in that pod all over again. I used to think that Kal was missing so much by having to leave Krypton when he was such a little baby, but...he had it so easy,” Kara admits, throat constricting. “No one to miss. No years lost in the phantom zone.” She thinks to say something else but brings her glass to her mouth instead.

“Hey,” Lena interrupts softly, a hand covering Kara’s on the glass and pulling it away before placing the glass on the coffee table next to her own. “It’s not wrong to be bitter and hurt by what you’ve been through and what you’ve lost. I know how that kind of loss feels. I didn’t lose my entire planet, and it’s still _crushing_.” Lena leans forward, gently placing her left hand on Kara’s chin and cheek. “But it makes you strong, and it gives you heart. And you, Kara Danvers, have the strongest and most beautiful heart I know.”

Kara feels her throat bob in slow motion as Lena’s thumb moving _oh so close_ to the corner of her mouth causes her breath to hitch. Through her foggy brain, she manages to tune her hearing into Lena’s racing heartbeat. “Really?” she whispers, Lena’s thumbnail grazing her lip as it moves.

“Really.” Lena shifts again, breaking Kara’s reverie as she inches closer to her on the couch before wrapping both arms around Kara from the side. 

Kara twists, facing Lena more fully and draping her arms around Lena’s waist. “What’s this for?”

Lena squeezes a little. “Because you just watched yourself have a panic attack and then had to talk about something that would potentially give you a panic attack.” She pauses before pulling back just enough to see Kara’s face. “And because I wanted to.”

Kara grins. “I wasn’t complaining.”

“If Kara Danvers were ever to complain about a hug, I’d be looking outside the window for pigs flying.”

Kara laughs loudly, the unexpected joke catching her off guard. “Okay, that’s definitely true, I am a world-renowned hugger.”

Lena has now moved her upper arm to the back of the couch to support her head from the side. “Quite the diverse skill set you have, Supergirl,” she teases with a pointed eyebrow lift.

Kara raises her brows and bites her lip. “You don’t even know.”

The resulting _thud_ from Lena’s heart echoes in Kara’s mind until she falls asleep several hours (and a lot of catching up) later.


	7. MIT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> buckle up, buttercup

Kara’s head is _pounding,_ and the guy aggressively clearing his throat needs to knock it off.

“Earth to Kara Danvers, most beautiful woman in all of the dimensions!”

Kara’s reconsidering her “no killing” preference. “What do you want, Mxy? It’s only-” she looks at her phone, “noon.”

He makes a brief sound Kara thinks is supposed to feign pity. “Well, excuse me, but you broke your promise to me!” Kara ignores him and throws the blanket over her head, so he continues. “You had homework last night, missy! And that homework was only halfway completed, plus you still haven’t watched my MIT masterpiece!”

“Go away.”

“You wound me,” Mxy whines, emphasizing his point with a dramatic fall on the floor, the vibration of which has Kara wishing her head would detach from her body for the rest of the day. “As I was saying, I do believe we had an agreement last night that you would be focusing on self-care and your happiness aaaand watching videos!”

“Uh-huh.”

Mxy sniffles. “You’re not taking this seriously.”

“Okay, Mxy,” Kara huffs, aggressively throwing the blanket off her head. “What do you want me to do?”

He claps with delight. “Okay, well, first of all, I believe in the sandwich method of feedback giving. So: good work celebrating your victories last night! But I was really disappointed that you didn’t watch all of the movies I so carefully made. Great job sharing the Beebo and elevator ones with Lena, though, love that for you!”

“Not answering my question.”

“You have to find and watch the rest of the videos, obviously!”

Kara flops onto her stomach and shoves her head into the pillow. “Later.”

“Yes, fine, whatever, drink some water and take an aspirin like everybody else. And might I suggest continuing the viewing party with Lena? Oooh, or a movie night? That would just be _splendid!_ ”

“What’s the point of all this, Mxy?” Kara pushes, sitting up and flinging her legs over the side of the bed. “Didn’t we agree that I shouldn’t second guess myself?”

“Oh, Kara, honey, I don’t want you to second guess yourself. You can’t even change anything, the videos aren’t exactly Choose Your Own Adventure if you didn’t notice.”

“So then what do you want?!” she all but shouts, fanning the flames of her headache. “Ow.”

Mxy snaps his fingers and hands Kara a glass of water and two pills. “Sheesh, you superpowered beings really don’t know how to handle your drink.”

“Aren’t _you_ a superpowered being?”

Mxy hops up to a standing position, bouncing around the room. “Not the point! So, do I have your word that you’re going to get to work today? You haven’t even watched one of the first tapes you’ve found, and it’s a personal favorite of mine! Why _are_ you avoiding that one, anyway? Maybe it’s actually for the best...” He scratches his chin contemplatively.

Kara sighs. “Under one condition.”

“I’m listening.”

“You tell me why you want me to watch these videos of things that have never and will never happen.”

He waves a dismissive hand. “I told you, I want you to focus on your happiness! You’ll figure out the rest.” He snaps his fingers and is suddenly wearing a cheerleading outfit and holding pom-poms. “I _believe_ in you!”

“Watching people I love die is not gonna make me happy!” Kara argues.

“Oh, come on now. It’s much more about the _people you love_ than the dying. Oh, one second!” He holds his thumb to his ear and pinky to his mouth, mimicking answering a phone. “Oops, fifth-dimensional duties call. Toodles!”

With a snap of his fingers, he’s gone. Just as he disappears, Kara’s phone buzzes on the nightstand.

“First, peeing. Then phone,” Kara grumbles to herself, resolving to finally get out of bed and take some measures (read: food) to deal with her - ugh - hangover.

 **Lena:** How are you feeling today? Or do Kryptonians not get hangovers?

That answered the question of whether Lena was asleep on Kara’s couch (not that Kara believed Lena would ever text her from the same apartment unless she wanted to make fun of someone else in the same room. Not that they’d done that…).

 **Kara:** I’m sorry to report that we do and I was still in the process of sleeping mine off when I had an unwelcome fifth-dimensional houseguest

Lena doesn’t reply for a while, so Kara goes about her business, casually ensuring she steps into direct sunlight at every possible moment and thankful none of her neighbors were near a window when she thoughtlessly did so after a desperately needed shower.

Soon after, just as Kara is pouring herself her third bowl of cereal, there’s a knock at the door. “Lena?” she wonders aloud after a quick x-ray peek through the door.

“Hi!” Kara greets as brightly as she can muster when she throws the door open, stepping aside for Lena to come in.

“Hi,” replies the very surprise visitor, moving directly into the kitchen to empty her hands of the bags they’d been holding. “You know, I just realized I could walk up the stairs outside your door and just say your name, and you’d know I was there. Knocking seems very old-fashioned now.”

Kara laughs. “Well, kind of ruins the fun of having surprise visitors if there’s no real knock, you know?”

“Mmm,” Lena reacts absentmindedly. “Wait, what do you mean surprise?”

A very hazy memory comes back to Kara - a memory of her and Lena agreeing to brunch today, time to-be-determined by text when both parties woke up. Wait. No. They definitely set a time. Didn’t they?

“You’re early, that’s all!” Kara covers.

Lena hazards a glance at her watch. “By two minutes,” she defends with a smile. “And I brought food, give me a break.”

“Point taken,” Kara acquiesces. 

Lena rummages through some drawers, and her familiarity with where things are in the kitchen makes Kara feel warm inside as she has the odd sensation that they’d spent no time apart at all. Lena’s voice interrupts her. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like,” Lena sticks out a hand, palm up, gesturing at Kara’s face. “that.”

Kara looks away entirely. “Sorry. Happy you’re here, I guess. And, you know, waiting for food,” she deflects. “I love food!”

“Well, then I guess we’d better eat, huh?” Lena starts opening bags and pulling out containers but stops suddenly. “Uh...I definitely don’t remember ordering this.”

She’s holding a tape in her hands, and it takes everything Kara has not to stamp her feet on the ground like a toddler. 

Lena turns the tape around to read the label. “‘The One Where Kara and Lena Get Drunk.’ Sounds familiar,” she jokes. “Shall we?” she asks, but she’s already halfway to the couch and Kara doesn’t think that was a serious question. 

The next minute passes in a blur, and to say that Kara felt nervous would be an understatement; watching Mxy’s creations had, thus far, not exactly been a pleasant experience.

Lena, on the other hand, seems totally relaxed. “Oh, I remember this night! Wow, that was like, two years ago. Weird seeing it again.”

“Try living it again,” Kara deadpans.

“I can’t even imagine,” Lena agrees.

It’s a game night like most others, really; this particular evening wasn’t preceded or followed by any significant catastrophes, and there was no interpersonal drama between any of the group members, at least that Kara can remember.

Lena’s voice breaks into Kara’s thoughts once again. “Didn’t you say most of the timelines you tried started at major events? What was going on here? I don’t remember anything.”

“Me neither,” Kara replies skeptically. “Maybe that’s the point?”

“Hmm, maybe,” Lena acquiesces. “Actually, I don’t remember this night after all. Sam had already left National City on this night, and that is most _definitely_ her sitting next to Alex.”

Kara nods. “Huh. You’re right. And I’ve definitely never seen that blouse on you before.” Kara notices Lena start to angle her head towards her as one eyebrow shoots up. “Not that I can remember everything you own. I mean, you’re like, super rich, I guess you have a lot of clothes,” she adds with a dopey grin that morphs into a grimace as she finishes with, “but I would definitely remember this because it’s very...flattering.” 

As Kara reaches for her glass of water to force her mouth to have something to do other than word vomiting, she half-heartedly finds herself wishing she’d taken the hair-of-the-dog approach to hangover treatment.

“Right.” Lena, looking incredibly smug, laughs softly. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I’ve never seen this shirt, either. So it seems like Sam and shirts are the big differences in this timeline,” she finishes with a wink as she softly nudges Kara’s knee with her own.

“Sam and shirts, right,” Kara agrees awkwardly as a _pop_ sound breaks into the room.

Mxy appears, and Kara notices Lena is completely frozen on the couch next to her, their knees still pressed together.

“Mxy, what the _hell_! What did you do to her? Why is she, like, a freaking statue?!”

“Kara, Kara, calm _down_! You know I love you far too much to hurt you!”

“Well then, unfreeze her! That hurts me!”

“Mm, ‘fraid I can’t do that just yet.” He snaps his fingers, and Lena disappears. “Better?”

“ _No_!” Kara roars, springing off the couch and moving directly in front of Mxy faster than he can blink. “Where is she? Bring her back!”

“Oh, please,” he snaps again, and Kara is sitting on the couch, “she’s perfectly fine. I just sent her to another dimension for the time being. Don’t you worry your gorgeous little head, my dear! Time passes differently there, and she’ll have no idea she even left.”

Kara groans. “You are unbelievable.”

“Why _thank you_!” he replies gleefully, a hand over his heart. “That’s by far the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Just get to the point, Mxy. Why are you here _again_ when I did exactly what you asked and watched the videos _with Lena_ , also exactly like you asked? And why did you send her away?!”

“Oh, you mean _that!_ Well, I did also say you’d neglected to watch one of my personal favorites and one of the first ones you found, ‘Kara Goes to MIT.’ I’m afraid there is just a little bit of rhyme and reason to this adventure we’re on together and, while Lena is ready to watch ‘Kara and Lena Get Drunk,’ I’m afraid you’re not...so I’m going to have to insist that you watch ‘Kara Goes to MIT’ by yourself first.” 

“Seriously? You literally just made this tape appear in Lena’s food bag. Surely you already knew what I had and hadn’t watched.”

“Seriously!” he replies energetically, clearly enunciating every syllable. “And, cut me some slack, filmmaking is a very intense hobby that’s still new to me! I can’t possibly be expected to keep up with all of the creative threads _and_ viewership numbers! Ooh, should I watch it with you? I can bring the popcorn machine!”

“Nope!” Kara interrupts as he raises his fingers to snap. “If I promise to watch right now, will you go?”

“Scout’s honor!”

Kara quirks a brow. “I seriously doubt you were a boy scout.”

Mxy scoffs. “It’s just an expression. Anyway, I’ll go now.” He snaps his fingers, and he’s back in his cheerleading outfit, pom-poms in hand. “M-I-T! M-I-T!”

“I got it!”

“Toodles!” He snaps, and he’s gone.

Suddenly, Kara is annoyed that she hadn’t asked how or when Lena would reappear, but she’s not about to summon him again. Deciding to get it over with, she digs out the MIT tape and plays it right away.

The tape starts to play, and Kara sees a younger version of herself (19, 20 years old?) on a college campus she only recognizes as MIT from the tape’s title. She’s standing outside what looks like a residence hall, flanked by Alex and Eliza. 

_“Be careful, Kara,” Alex instructs. “No powers!” she half-whispers half-growls._

_“I **know** , Alex,” she whines in reply._

_Eliza’s eyes are misty. “Take care, sweetie.” She pulls Kara into a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”_

_Kara squeezes Eliza just a little tighter. “I wouldn’t be here without you. Thanks for the push.”_

_Eliza pulls back a little. “You’re a brilliant scientist, Kara. You earned this.”_

_“Transferring across the country was just a bonus, huh?” Alex grumbles._

_The tape fast forwards itself, and Kara is alone, rushing across campus. Kara pushes her glasses further up the bridge of her nose with determination and picks up to what can only be considered the absolute maximum pace a young human woman could be expected to run. Simultaneously, another student who’d been sitting on a nearby bench stands up without a glance and smack. Kara runs right into her._

_“Ohhhhh my God,” she panics, remembering the last time she had a collision like this in high school and broke the starting quarterback’s wrist. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?” she rambles, blindly reaching out to try to help this poor young woman to her feet._

_“Well, I’m fine, can’t say the same for my coffee there,” the woman replies, voice grim as coffee pools around her feet. “Um, your hand…” she trails off awkwardly._

_Kara looks down and notices her very unfortunate hand placement on the other woman’s butt. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry, what a mess.”_

_The other woman is, without a shadow of a doubt (despite the disheveled hair covering her face), Lena._

_Lena straightens, smoothing her hair and composing herself. “Well, if you’ll excuse me-”_

_“Please let me buy you another coffee!” Kara practically squeals. “It’s the least I can do,” she finishes more evenly._

_“Well,” Lena considers, glancing at her watch, “you did spill mine, which was still at least ninety-seven percent full…”_

_“Then it looks like you earned yourself a three percent bonus! Every milligram of caffeine counts, you know!”_

_Lena laughs softly. “Okay, then.”_

_“Okay!” Kara beams._

_They set off together in the direction of the closest coffee kiosk. “And who are you, exactly? Haven’t seen you around Killian Court before,” Lena questions._

_“Um...um, I’m Kara Danvers. I’m sure you’ve seen me before, I just transferred here, but I pretty much live on this part of campus.”_

_“Oh, I think I’d remember that,” Lena retorts, practically leering at Kara. “After all, it’s not every day someone charges into me when I’m still pre-caffeine and lives to tell the tale, so you must be special,” she toys._

_Kara gulps audibly. “Oh, you...heh. Sorry about that. Again.”_

_“Are you Canadian? No more apologizing until I’m at least 10% into that replacement coffee. Though I have to say, those meet-cutes never looked this painful in the movies.” Lena punctuates her point by inspecting her elbow._

_“Sor-”_

_“Nope! Coffee.”_

_Kara lets a laugh escape. “Right. Coffee.”_

_“You could at least ask my name, though.”_

_Kara coughs dramatically. “Oh, right. Sor- uh, right. What’s your name?”_

_“Lena.”_

_“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lena.”_

_“Likewise. Wait, weren’t you running to be somewhere?”_

_Scenes of Kara in classrooms and laboratories fly by with Lena’s presence in the scenes ever-growing. The playback drops to normal, and the sound returns with Lena and Kara huddled over books spread over a coffee table in what (based on its size and decor) must be Lena’s apartment._

_“No, that can’t be right!” Lena huffs, tossing her pencil onto the table._

_“We must have just calculated something wrong,” Kara offers._

_“Obviously, we calculated something wrong!” Lena snaps, softening immediately. “Sorry,” she says, sounding genuinely regretful. “You know I hate making mistakes I can’t solve immediately,” she says, far more playfully._

_Kara puts a hand on her forearm. “I know. But we’ll fig- hey, wait. Is that a four or a nine?”_

_Lena follows Kara’s finger to a point near the end of their work. “I don’t know, that’s your handwriting. Is it a four or a nine?”_

_Kara’s eyes widen. “Uh,” she begins, trying to buy time as her eyes rapidly scan their mess of notes. “I’m not sure,” she offers sheepishly._

_Lena sighs heavily, and couch-Kara is vividly imagining the uptick in Lena’s heartbeat - that rapid increase that comes when she’s frustrated. Lena looks at her laptop screen. “I ran it as a four.”_

_“Oh gosh, Lena, I’m sorry, maybe it’s a nine…”_

_Lena smiles suddenly. “It’s okay. We only lost five minutes here, and we wasted at least 30 when I used the wrong operator not once, but twice in the program. Let’s try it with a nine.” She twists around to focus on the laptop screen, and Kara follows suit, resting her chin on Lena’s shoulder to peer at the screen in front of her._

_“Here we go,” Lena announces, rerunning the program with the new number. It loads...and loads...and loads. “Well, it didn’t take this long last time, that has to be a good sign, right?”_

_“Totally!” Kara agrees, not sounding all that convinced but optimistic anyway._

_A few moments later, they get their answer: **SIMULATION SUCCESSFUL.**_

_“It worked!” Kara exclaims, her glee bringing her abruptly to her feet. She reaches down for Lena’s hands to pull her to a standing position, too. “We did it!”_

_“Indeed. Finally,” Lena teases. “Maybe you should take a penmanship elective next semester.”_

_“Hey!” Kara is mock-offended. “You made mistakes, too,” she pouts, looking at the floor and shuffling her feet a little._

_“I’m only kidding, darling,” Lena soothes._

_Kara is still sulking. “I know, but you hate working with partners and-”_

_“Kara!” Lena interrupts with a smile, putting a finger under Kara’s chin to move her pouting gaze off the floor. “I’m really joking. We make a great team.”_

_Kara grins. “Lucky me that the resident nerd took the poor, lonely transfer student in as her lab partner when no one else wanted her.”_

_“Pfft,” Lena dismisses. “I highly doubt that.”_

_“It’s true! Everyone else already had their preferred study buddies and didn’t want to bother catching a transfer up to speed. So thank you.”_

_Lena’s expression is...blissful? Admiring? “Thank you. It’s been nice to find someone I actually enjoy spending time with.”_

_“Oooh, that’s a very general comment, Ms. Luthor. Be careful, or I’ll start to think you like me as more than a lab partner.” Lena’s eyes get almost comically wide, so Kara continues. “Not that we have to be, like, best friends or something! I know you don’t have time for-”_

_“You’re rambling, Kara.”_

_“Sorry.”_

_“It’s a shame I hadn’t made it more obvious that I clearly like you as more than a lab partner. I was actually trying, too.”_

_“Oh,” Kara squeaks. “Well, maybe it was me. You know me, kind of, uh, oblivious.” Did Lena just step closer?_

_“I do.” Yep, Lena was definitely stepping closer now._

_“But that’s...good to know. That you like me. Uh. That we’re friends. Well, you know what I mean.”_

_Lena reaches for her hand and squeezes it. “You’re rambling again.”_

_“Sorry.”_

_Lena takes another step closer, and they’re sharing the same air now. “And you were right the first time.”_

_“About what?” Kara asks, almost dreamily._

_“That I like you.”_

_“Oh,” Kara breathes out._

_“Yeah,” Lena comments._

_Before Kara can process what’s going on and stop fidgeting, Lena’s closed the remaining distance between them and kissed her._

Lena is kissing Kara, and Kara presses pause with a speed that even she didn’t know she was capable of. That doesn’t help the fact that she now gets to process the fact that she’s watching an alternate version of herself kiss an alternate version of her best-friend-turned-enemy-turned-ally-turned-friend-she-wants-constant-contact-with-again and that kiss is now FROZEN ON HER TELEVISION. 

She stares at the screen, alternate versions of themselves pressed together in the first milliseconds of a kiss. “Well, that’s definitely different,” she comments, feeling like she’s providing director’s commentary.

She takes a deep, steadying breath and presses play. Yep, they’re still kissing.

_Kara’s arms move from being frozen in place to Lena’s hips, and it’s more than obvious she isn’t opposed to what’s happening. When Lena feeds one hand into Kara’s hair and grabs onto Kara’s upper arm with the other, one might even make an argument that Kara was smiling into said kiss. Well, at least until Lena, feeling encouraged by the current response, deepens the kiss._

Kara is flabbergasted to notice that her alternate-self _definitely_ just moaned a little at the introduction of Lena’s tongue into this series of events.

_Lena pulls back ever so slightly. “Kara,” she breathes._

_“Hmm?”_

_“How and why are we floating two feet off the ground right now?”_

_“Oh, shoot, Alex is gonna **kill** me!_”

To Kara’s chagrin, the tape speeds up, the next scenes flying by: Kara flying with Lena in her arms, Kara kissing Lena while flying with her in her arms, Kara and Lena almost certainly having sex, but who can say for sure in less than half a second (okay, Kara could and wow was that a long half-second), Kara and Lena saying goodbye for summer break, Kara breaking the news to an enraged Alex that she shared her secret.

The scenes keep flying by for so long that Kara begins to wonder where - and how - this completely different reality ends.

Kara and Lena at graduation.

Kara at Lena’s next graduation.

Kara and Lena moving into an absurd apartment together.

Kara and Lena getting married.

Wait, getting married? “Married?!” Kara practically squawks, jumping up from the couch to squat right in front of the TV. “Oh, boy.”

The tape slows down again, returning to real-time-speed with Kara and Lena on a beach and definitely wearing wedding bands. 

_“Oh my God,” Lena says suddenly, voice dripping with panic and sitting up ramrod straight in her chair._

_“What’s wrong?” Kara leans forward, placing a hand on Lena’s back._

_Lena looks torn and doesn’t say anything, handing Kara the phone to see for herself. Immediately, Kara is bounding into the air and flying at top speed. Seconds later, she’s in National City, the wreckage of a burning plane in front of her._

_US Airways Flight 197, National City to Geneva._

_Alex’s flight._

_Kara watches, dumbfounded, as images fly by of Kara going back to Lena on that beach and, shortly after, attending Alex’s funeral._

She turns off the TV, tears streaming down her face.

In real life, she’d revealed herself to the world as a side effect of saving Alex’s life. In this timeline, she wasn’t there to save Alex or anyone else because she was on her _honeymoon_. With Lena. 

Could there even be a Supergirl without Alex?

And did Kara really just watch that tape again twice but stop it right before the end?


	8. Hindsight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not gonna assume all of y'all watch the other Arrowverse shows or that you sat through the entirety that was the hot mess of Crisis, so I'll just clarify here that the "scruffy, bow-carrying friend" referenced in this chapter is Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow. Could I have written it to make that more clear? Sure. Did I? Sure didn't!
> 
> Toodles!

Three viewings later, Kara is sure of two things:

Watching Lena and Alex die as a result of, essentially, her own actions has been one of the worst experiences of Kara’s life

She has no idea how she’s going to handle watching the MIT tape _with Lena sitting right next to her_

Sure, she could just hide the tape and act like it never existed, but she’s sure Mxy would show up again immediately. 

She could feign an even worse hangover than she actually has so that Lena will leave, but that seems like avoiding the inevitable.

 _Or_ , she reasons super logically, she could choke on something and dramatically fall on top of the Betamax player, destroying any and all possibilities of continuing. Unfortunately, Mxy being able to snap a new one into existence the moment she pries her fake-choking-self off of the broken one sort of puts a damper on this otherwise completely perfect idea.

Kara slumps back against the couch, crossing her arms tightly over her chest as she lets out a resigned huff. “Mxy?” she asks the room softly. “Of course,” she bemoans.

She picks up her phone and looks at it before remembering that Alex has plans with Kelly, and Lena is _currently trapped in another dimension where time doesn’t exist_. “MXY!” she roars, voice near full volume.

Mxy pops into sight on the couch next to Kara. “Geez, okay, can’t a guy just get a happy medium between apathy and apocalyptic rage?”

“What am I supposed to do now?” Kara asks meekly.

“Oh, _Kara_!” he responds, voice full of pity as he procures a tissue box and passes it to her. “You always know the right thing to do, and I am _sure_ this time is no different!”

Kara exhales sharply through her nose before furrowing her brow in disbelief. “You...I...how am I supposed to show Lena that? We only just started being friends again, and now you want me to show her a video where we’re _married_? And doing sex stuff?!” She clears her throat. “Having sex, I mean.”

“Well, yes.”

Kara springs to her feet. “Seriously?”

“You still don’t see it, do you?”

“Mxy,” Kara says with a sigh, sitting back down on the couch next to him. “I’m so tired. I just want Lena back, and I don’t know what you’re doing but-”

Mxy leans forward, squeezing one of Kara’s knees. “But?”

“Are you playing _matchmaker_?”

Mxy giggles. “Oh, heavens, no!” He pauses. “Well, I mean, not me personally. Did you know we had a Cupid in the fifth dimension? Anyway, no. I’m simply the film distributor!”

“You mean creator.”

Mxy scoffs. “Kara Zor-El Danvers, why I never! I may be the one who selected those scenes for your curated viewing enjoyment, but I assure you they are all fully founded in reality.”

Kara squints her eyes at him doubtfully. “I’m not following.”

“Heh, well,” Mxy begins sheepishly. “While our previous movie night may have been focused on providing alternate experiences for you personally, these tapes are all one hundred percent real.”

“This is ridiculous,” Kara complains with an eye roll.

“No! Just because it’s not _you_ in those scenes doesn’t mean it’s not Kara Danvers. Might I remind you that you used to live on Earth-38 and that Earth is no longer?”

“As if I could forget,” Kara laments.

“Well, the Earths were _infinite_ , as they say. What you saw was simply a sampling of the experiences of the other Karas. There were many more, of course, but as I said, I did do a little bit of curation for you personally,” he explains proudly.

“You mean to tell me that all of those things really happened?”

Mxy claps his hands giddily. “Indeed, my young apprentice! Oh, you are getting it now!” 

“The events were so similar…” Kara reflects quietly, mostly to herself.

“Yes, well, infinite Earths...it only takes the teensiest of changes to alter the entire course of a life or even history. After what happened, I felt it only fair that the other Karas got to tell their stories, too.”

“And the other Lenas.”

Mxy smirks. “And the other Lenas indeed. As our adventures in cinema with Lena began, so too shall they end.”

Kara scrunches her face. “Wait, what?”

Mxy shifts his eyes around the room. “Uh, nothing. I thought that would sound really deep and poetic, but that wasn’t my best work. _Anyway_ , since it was your desire to win Lena back that brought us back together, it only made sense that I fulfill my favor to Cupid by-”

“Your what?!” Kara shrieks.

“Nothing!” Mxy hops up, straightening his jacket and clearly preparing to leave. “Just to be clear...I don’t meddle. Nothing has been changed.”

“Do you…” Kara begins nervously, trailing off as she twists her hands in her lap. “Do you think the Karas from those other Earths, I dunno, merged into this one? Like I feel what they felt?” She pauses, clearing her throat aggressively. “For Lena?”

“Kara, dear, I’m quite certain that your scruffy, bow-carrying friend was not forward-thinking enough to plan beyond saving you personally. So, no chance. I have it on good authority, anyway.”

“Whose?”

Mxy clears his throat. “No matter! So, feelings for Lena, huh? What are you gonna do?”

“I have no idea,” Kara mutters. “Hey, wait. Where _is_ Lena?”

Mxy’s eyes widen. “Oh, right! Should I snap her back n-”

“ _No!_ ” Kara interrupts. “I mean, not yet. I need a second to think. But...when she comes back, will she know she was gone?”

“Nope, so I suggest you try to go back to...however you were sitting when she left. Otherwise, she’ll think you can teleport now and we’ll open a whole other _you hid your powers from me!_ can of worms.”

“Okay. Hey, you said Lena was ready to see the tape where we get drunk, but I wasn’t. What does that mean?”

“When was the first time you actively thought about _feelings for Lena_ with a label before this moment? Telling Alex you’re, and I quote, ‘desperate to be in constant contact with her’ doesn’t count.”

Kara scoffs. “You are such a creep.”

“You didn’t answer my ques-tiooooon,” Mxy singsongs.

“Probably the second time I watched myself...uh, another-Earth-me...kissing her.”

“Mmmhmm.”

“So?”

“ _So?!_ You realized it from the MIT tape.”

“Uh-huh,” Kara follows.

“Which I told you Lena didn’t need.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Uh-huh…” Mxy prods.

“ _Ohhhh,_ ” Kara draws out, realization striking her.

“And in words, that means?”

Kara stares blankly in front of her. “Lena would have been quite pleased to watch alternate-Earth-Lena kiss alternate-Earth-Kara,” she says, sounding more like she’s thinking aloud than anything else.

“In other words…” Mxy coaxes.

“Lena has feelings for me,” Kara says, more surely. 

“Mmhmm,” Mxy encourages her, prodding for more.

“Lena is _in love with me!_ ” Kara exclaims suddenly, realization dawning on her. “Oh gosh, Lena is in love with me,” she repeats, once again on her feet and pacing the room. 

“Whoomp, there it is,” Mxy comments quietly, going ignored.

“How could I have missed it? All those times, I was just trying to fix our friendship, and that’s why it never worked! I’m not just a friend to Lena, and she even told me so! Sheesh, she even said she loved me, and I broke her heart, how could I be so stu-”

“Now, now, Kara!” Mxy interjects, placing a hand on her shoulder. “No one calls my Kara stupid, not even Kara herself! And, anyway, it certainly _was_ a beautiful friendship! It just so happens to have been, well, infinitely more.” After a beat, he snorts, then says, “No pun intended.”

Kara drops back onto the couch, not quite sure what to do with herself. “I have totally spent the last however-many years of my life in love with my best friend and wondering why I wasn’t interested in the perfectly nice guy who kept asking me out.”

Mxy grimaces. “Well, I mean, I think the guy part might be debatable, but that’s another story,” he dismisses. “Anyhoo, it sure took a while, but with a little teamwork, we made it, and boy, am I relieved! I feel _God_ in this Chili’s tonight!”

“You what?”

Mxy shrugs. “Too much? I dunno, I saw it in a gif, thought it was funny.”

Kara snorts. “You have gifs in the fifth dimension?”

“We have _everything_ in the fifth dimension!” He waves his right arm, and a portal briefly appears, a bustling city with flying cars, unicorns, and, wait, is that Beebo? Before Kara can fully process what she sees, he waves his arm again, and it’s gone. “Anyway, I’d best be going so that you can get back to your...well, whatever you’re going to do now. Proud of you!”

“Thanks,” Kara mutters sourly. “Are you gonna bring Lena back now?”

“I’ll give you a few minutes. You can...go to the bathroom or reapply your lip gloss, or whatever it is that you do. Might I suggest a neutral shade? You know, since Lena generally has somewhat _bolder_ choices when it comes to her lipstick choices.” He gestures at her face with his hands, not seeming to really know what to do with himself. “Well, I’ll be taking my leave now. See you around, Kara Zor-El.”

“See you around, Mxy.”

With a snap, he’s gone, and Kara’s got four minutes to save the world. Or her own ass. Whatever.


	9. Infinitely More

“Okay, think, Kara, think!” Kara orders herself, pacing through her apartment with super speed as if that were going to help. Flying backwards around the Earth to actually slow down time would probably be too dramatic, right?

One minute left.

In the last three minutes, Kara has accomplished precisely one trip to the bathroom and literally nothing else. At least she could be sure she wouldn’t pee in her pants, but considering that was absolutely nowhere on her list of concerns, it was of no comfort to her now.

Another thirty seconds have gone by while thinking about peeing in her pants as a thirty-year-old woman. “Okay,” she tries again, taking a deep, steadying breath. “Just sitting on the couch. Right…” she trails off, analyzing the couch. “Here.” She sits, then reconsiders. “No, no, our legs were touching, must have been here.”

She blinks, and Lena is back. “Kara?”

“Hmm?” Kara says, faking a smile and cocking her head to look at Lena as innocently as possible.

Lena looks surprised and confused. “Did you just use super speed to turn off the TV? If you didn’t want to watch it, you could have just said so, you know, I wouldn’t have made you.”

“Oh boy,” Kara breathes out, mostly to herself. “You really didn’t notice?”

“Notice...what?” Lena questions.

“Mxy sort of...sent you to another dimension for a little while.”

“He _what?!_ For how long?”

“Not sure, actually,” Kara realizes. “Anyway, he said we...he said I didn’t watch his tapes in order, so I had to watch another one before this one. He said it was better if you weren’t here.” Her heart sinks as Lena’s face contorts in disappointment. “We can watch it together after the one we just started, and I’ll explain everything. Promise.”

Kara shuffles to the player and swaps back to “The One Where Kara and Lena Get Drunk.” Lena presses play as Kara flops back onto the couch.

She gulps as she slings her legs over Lena’s lap, earning a soft smile in return.

Meanwhile, the tape makes a loud clicking sound as the picture warps from the earlier view of their crew at game night and into an old-timey news screen, the text “THIS REALITY IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER. YOUR MXY5 TEAM” boldly centered on the screen.

“O...kay. Is this also something I missed?” Lena questions.

“Uh, nope. Definitely didn’t expect this,” Kara replies, equally perplexed as she alternately mashes the rewind and fast forward buttons to no avail. “Mxy specifically talked about watching that one, actually. Maybe he changed his mind.”

“So what now?”

Kara swallows thickly. “Well, there’s only one left. ‘The One Where Kara Goes to MIT.’”

Lena grins. “Well then, let’s see it.” She rubs her chin as she contemplates while Kara puts the tape in. “Oh, let me guess. I run off to an alumni event at MIT, and you have to suddenly drop everything to fly across the country to stop Beebo from storming through campus and leaving me crushed in the rubble?”

Kara chuckles, thankful for the reprieve from the knot in her stomach. “Not even close.”

“Oh! Body swap where you’re the genius scientist with a dark family history, and I’m the Kryptonian superhero?” Lena teases hopefully, grabbing Kara’s ankles and pulling them back over her lap as she returns to the couch.

“Definitely not. Oh crap, close your eyes. I have to rewind, and you need to see it from the beginning.”

“Yes ma’am,” Lena says playfully, closing her eyes. “You know, you can rewind these old tapes without seeing the picture, you just have to press stop first.”

“Oh. Too late.” Kara takes a few steadying breaths as the scenes on the tape fly by in reverse, noting the ice crystals that sneak out and drift harmlessly to fall on the couch next to her. “Done. Hey, Lena?”

Lena opens her eyes and looks at Kara. “Hey, Kara?”

“Why were you so calm about being sent to another dimension?”

Lena laughs through her nose. “I don’t know, actually. I guess I just figured you wouldn’t have let anything happen to me, and I didn’t even notice being gone,” she responds with a shrug of her shoulders. “Considering what I know about your fifth-dimensional friend with the unpronounceable name, he seems to be the other-worldly version of a troll, all bark and no bite.”

“Gotcha.” Kara glances at the TV, then back at Lena. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Kara, Alex, and Eliza appear on the screen, and Lena immediately comments. “Aww, look at you, you’re so young! Whoa, wait, are you studying at MIT in this reality?”

Kara snickers. “I don’t remember you talking so much during movies.”

Lena whacks her with a throw pillow. “Oh, hush. This isn’t exactly a cinematic experience.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that the adventures of this Earth’s Kara are _exciting_!”

“Hold on,” Lena says, snatching the remote and pausing just as Kara and Eliza hug on the screen. “What do you mean, ‘this Earth?’”

“Oh, right. While you were...you know, gone, Mxy explained how he got all of these tapes despite them not being me visiting alternate versions of the timeline.”

“And…?” Lena prods.

“And it’s because these things all really happened...on other Earths.”

Lena lets out a single laugh of disbelief as her jaw drops. “Well, I suppose with infinite Earths, it does stand to reason that there are versions with us with only slightly different experiences.” She pauses briefly, before ruefully adding, “Or deaths.”

“That’s pretty much exactly what he said.”

“Interesting. So he just took a random selection of Karas on other Earths to show you? And to what end?”

Kara stutters for a moment before finding words again. “Can I answer that after we watch this one? I promise I’ll tell you, I just...is that okay?”

“Okay,” Lena responds agreeably. “I trust you.”

Kara feels her chest fill with warmth as she starts the tape again.

“Oh no,” Lena groans as Kara runs into the woman she’s seemingly already recognized as herself on screen. “I can’t believe we’re meeting while I was at MIT. There’s no way this can go well, I was absolutely _insufferable_.”

Kara suppresses a smirk. “We’ll see about that,” she comments quietly.

“Well, the fact that I let you buy me a replacement coffee instead of threatening you is promising,” Lena comments as the two on the screen banter before eventually making their way to the coffee kiosk. “Did I - I mean, that-me - just check you out? Huh.”

Meanwhile, Kara finds herself wishing that time would slow down or that the couch would swallow her whole. She’d settle for either, honestly.

Admittedly, Kara didn’t have a lot of experience with confessing romantic feelings in her life. Growing up, she’d been too scared to accidentally reveal her secret. Her romance with James built up far longer than it lasted, and she’d never had to really confess much. With Mon-El, he’d pursued her so openly that she’d barely had to do anything. And, well, that was pretty much the extent of Kara’s romantic history, now that she thinks about it. 

All that being said, even though she _knows_ (okay, maybe “knows” is a strong word, but Mxy pretty much told her. Right?) that Lena has feelings for her, articulating her own, freshly-realized-but-not-new-feelings feels simultaneously like the most terrifying thing she’s ever experienced (second only to the times where she thought she’d lose Alex in real life) and also thoroughly, utterly inevitable.

Lena’s voice interrupts her thoughts. “Earth Prime to Kara. Where’d you go?”

“Sorry,” Kara excuses herself awkwardly. “Just thinking about something.”

“Let me guess. Potstickers? I snuck an extra order into your freezer last time,” Lena reveals with a devilish grin.

Kara beams. “No, but that is beneficial information that I will definitely keep in mind. Sorry, what did you say that I missed?” She notices that the screen is paused on one of the higher-speed scenes of her in a classroom.

Lena looks at her fondly. “I just said that it’s a shame that it looks like this Earth was probably deprived of your prose because you already seem to be a total lab rat.”

“Well, Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize...no big difference,” Kara jokes.

“Maybe you’re the world-saving genius,” Lena teases with a wink as she plays the tape again. 

A moment later, the scenes stop flying by and the picture fades into the scene of Lena and Kara huddled around a coffee table covered in books, papers, and laptops. Kara watches Lena cringe as the on-screen Kara half-admits to making a numerical error due to poor penmanship. She then sees her face turn impressed as the on-screen Lena remains relatively relaxed about it.

Lena lets out a sardonic laugh. “If I didn’t already know this was another Earth, I definitely would now. She was _way_ too calm. Or I was. She.” Lena pauses, thoughtful. “What a weird experience,” she mutters finally.

While Lena’s speaking, Kara pauses the video, not wanting Lena to miss the development of what’s going on as it’s key to her incredibly poorly thought out, impending confession. “Oh, come on, couldn’t it just be that I was so _charming_ and _delightful_ that you just couldn’t be mad at me?” she jokes, making her best puppy-eyed expression.

“You? The one who wormed her way into my heart after I vowed to move here and be an ice queen? Can’t imagine.” 

Lena winks, and Kara plays the video again without replying because words are an illusion.

“Ah, ‘you hate working with partners,’ there it is!” Lena comments. 

Meanwhile, Kara has stopped watching the tape entirely and progressed to blatantly staring at Lena, who has luckily yet to notice.

“The nerve of you to call me the resident nerd,” Lena complains, still not looking away from the screen. 

“Yeah,” Kara agrees halfheartedly, fingernails digging into her palms.

“I’m getting the impression that this Kara wore down this Ice-Queen-Lena just like you did. The multiverse strikes again.”

“Yeah, something like that…” Kara trails off, eyes rapidly darting at the TV as Lena glances at her. “You know me!” she adds awkwardly.

Less than a second later, the Kara on screen is also awkwardly rambling; the chipper, “You know me!” coming from the TV sounding just as Kara had, sending Lena into a fit of laughter.

Lena waves a hand apologetically. “Sorry. That was just too good. It was like an echo. That could totally be you-you!”

As the Lena on the screen moves closer and closer to Kara, Lena’s laughter quickly dies off.

Moments later, Kara and Lena are kissing on-screen. Kara tunes into Lena’s heartbeat without thinking and it’s absolutely _hammering_. Lena has, apparently, also stopped blinking.

Lena is entirely silent for the remainder of the video, her earlier active commentary fallen by the wayside.

Kara wants to puke. 

Unrelated to her desire to projectile vomit, as the end of the tape - and Alex’s death - approaches, Kara excuses herself to the bathroom, throwing an, “it’s almost over, finish it without me!” over her shoulder on her way out of the room. She stays in the bathroom, hands gripping the sides of the sink until she hears the now-familiar _click_ of the tape stopping. With a deep breath, she goes back to the living room.

“Sorry, it’s just that the end of that tape wasn’t something I wanted to experience again.” She apologizes as she sits gingerly on the couch, as far to the side as she possibly can (in stark contrast to her earlier position with her legs casually thrown over Lena’s lap). “Kind of a downer.”

“That’s understandable.” Lena looks aimlessly around the room. “And the rest of it?”

Kara scrunches her eyebrows together. “The rest of it?”

“You said you didn’t want to experience the end of the tape again. What about the rest of it?”

Kara is pretty sure Lena doesn’t need super hearing to hear her gulp. “I didn’t mind.”

“Oh,” Lena comments simply, her voice significantly higher than usual.

“Did you? Mind, I mean.”

Lena clears her throat, then smirks a little as she meets Kara’s eyes for the first time. “No,” finally responds breathily.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

They sit there in awkward silence for a moment, both seeming to memorize the minute details of Kara’s décor to avoid looking at each other. Lena breaks the silence first. “So...would you like to get to the ‘I promise I’ll tell you after we watch this one’ you mentioned earlier, or would you prefer to continue counting carpet fibers?”

“Right,” Kara squeaks. “I sure did say that!” She adjusts her position in an attempt to sit up even straighter (which, much to her dismay, was not physically possible) because breathing seems to have become a problem. “So, where were we?”

“Other Earths,” Lena prompts simply.

“Yeah, other Earths. Well, as you already said, there were infinite Earths, so of course there are,” Kara pauses, shaking her head sadly, ”were plenty of Karas and Lenas with relatively similar experiences. And Mxy said he felt like it was important to tell their stories.”

“I see,” Lena says tensely. “And did he...give you an indication that they were merged onto this Earth? With us or as part of us, I mean?”

“He said very clearly that they weren’t. So, we’re still just us.”

“Simple,” Lena comments sarcastically, a grin taking over her lips but not quite reaching her eyes. “Why us, though? Why not the Kellys and Alexes of the other Earths?”

“He’s still Mxy,” Kara offers knowingly. “He had an ulterior motive, of course.”

“Oh, really? And what was that?”

“According to him, my happiness. That and he, apparently, owed someone a favor.”

Lena snorts. “What kind of favor is repaid by showing alternate universe reality TV to one’s former object of stalking?”

Kara has resumed counting carpet fibers. “I think it was more about the goal of showing the tapes than the tapes themselves.”

“And the goal was...your happiness?”

“Yep.”

“And watching these tapes was supposed to make you happy? Seems twisted,” Lena observes.

“Well, no.”

Lena rolls her eyes and lolls her dead backward dramatically. “Okay, Kara, as far as promises to explain go, this one is pretty bad. You’ve gotta give me something here,” Lena says lightly.

Now or never. Kara takes a deep breath and turns her whole body to her left to fully face Lena.

“The tapes weren’t supposed to make me happy. The tapes were supposed to help me realize how I could be happy. You know, you’re really good at deflecting to me because I definitely handled that tape super differently, and you’re just like la-de-da,” Kara rambles. Much to her chagrin, Lena doesn’t comment, so she continues, forcing herself to slow down. “The order of the tapes was important because I needed to see why I screwed up so many times just trying to save our friendship. Apparently, it was Mxy’s ‘artistic vision,’” she finishes with air quotes, searching Lena’s face for a reaction.

Lena’s face remains blank, but she’s at least making eye contact. “And why did you screw up?”

“Because it wasn’t a friendship I was trying so desperately to get back. It was more.”

Lena exhales loudly through her nose. “More.”

“More,” Kara confirms, feeling her breaths growing more and more shallow as an intrusive thought screaming about losing Lena yet again enters her mind. “Lena, I-”

“Kara,” Lena interrupts. “Breathe,” she commands soothingly, her hand on Kara’s knee feeling feather-light. 

“Right,” she agrees, taking deep, loud breaths through pursed lips. “I watched that MIT tape like three times. Four, if you count just now. Not the Alex part, of course. Just the...us parts.”

Lena pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “They were certainly something.”

“Yeah. And I...really liked it,” Kara manages, her voice coming out more air than anything else. “I mean, duh, since I watched it so much. Anyway, to be really honest, I promise I don’t know why that one tape stopped working, but what I do know is that there’s some kind of fifth-dimensional Cupid out there, and Mxy was working on his behalf and I seriously can’t believe that a bunch of other-worldly reality TV got me to figure all this out.”

“Kara,” Lena breaks in softly, “you’re rambling. Figure all what out?”

“That I couldn’t save our friendship because what I was actually fighting for was so much more. That in every reality, our paths were meant to cross, and we’re the last ones left because we’re the ones who have the chance to figure everything out and be happy. I feel like you coming back and showing up at my apartment that one day was just _gravity_. It was inevitable...”

“Kara, I-”

“Sorry,” Kara interrupts. “I didn’t mean to stop, I know that was super vague, and I’m not making my point, but I feel like I could throw up and, to be honest, I haven’t done that in years so I really hope I’m not missing an important physiological cue right now. I…” she trails off, focusing on her breathing yet again. “Watching all these tapes...so many things went wrong for so many of them. But us, we...you know everything now, and you’re still here. And the world didn’t end.”

“Can’t get rid of me that easily,” Lena comments.

“Thank god for that. Look, Lena, I’ve been thinking about the words to use to say this for the last, like, hour or whatever, and I can’t find them, which makes me really ashamed to call myself a Pulitzer winner, actually, but I’m going to do my best. That secret was like a wall between us, like we could always hear but never fully see each other. But I _see_ you, Lena, more clearly now than I ever have and I...I _know_ that I’ve spent the last four years making you the center of my world and my heart and _that_ Kara and _that_ Lena at MIT were totally onto something.”

Lena’s eyes, wide and intense under her sharply raised brows, are boring into Kara. “Could you maybe be a little more...direct?”

Kara takes a shaky breath, genuinely hoping it’s the last time she has to focus so closely on her breathing for a while. “I have feelings for you that are so much more than friendship and so much more like MIT-Kara than you could possibly imagine.”

“Romantic feelings.”

“Romantic feelings,” Kara confirms with a nod. Silence fills the room.

Kara feels her stomach turn into a knot. Was this a puking cue? And was Mxy wrong about Lena’s feelings? Because this sure felt awkward. “I’m sorry, I totally understand if you don’t feel the same. That was probably way too much to dump on you right after telling you that you were sent to another dimension before and after watching other-Earth versions of yourself on tape.”

Lena straightens, finally turning her body to fully face Kara. “I do. Feel the same.”

“Oh. Cool beans.” Kara shakes her head. “Oh god, that was weird. Sorry. I mean, um. That’s...a relief.”

“Mmm.”

“Great. Good talk,” Kara sputters. “So we c-”

Kara’s stammering is interrupted by Lena lurching forward to grab Kara’s shirt and _she’s pulling,_ bringing their lips together in a way that’s insistent but gentle and so, so overdue.

Kara hasn’t remembered to breathe yet, but she has managed to maneuver Lena fully into her lap, and she thinks she might be at the risk of death by human hands for the first time in a while when she feels Lena’s tongue touch her lips for the first time.

“Kara,” Lena breathes out, burying her hand deeply in Kara’s hair as she pulls back just enough to speak, “breathe.”

Kara turns her head to the side and lets out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. 

“Better?”

Kara nods. “Better.”

“Good.” Lena stops to brush some hair away from Kara’s face, delicately moving it behind her ears. “I’d say we have more to talk about, but I was getting concerned that you were actually going to throw up from the nerves, so I thought I’d give you a little...reassurance.”

Kara smirks. “Diehard acts of service.”

“I’m _very_ into giving,” Lena says huskily, bringing their lips together again.


	10. The Last One (Epilogue)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we did it, kids. hang in there

“You’re disgusting,” Alex groans. “I miss your lukewarm affection for men already. Considering I’m a lesbian, I think that’s really saying something.”

Kara rolls her eyes, pocketing her phone. “Oh shut up, I was just telling her it was a false alarm. Don’t even get me started on all the times I saw you grinning at your phone like you were in love with it when you first started dating Maggie or Kelly.”

“You two have been together for like, three hours, and I’m already ill.”

“ _Two_ hours, and I can’t believe I’m here discussing this with you right now. I shouldn’t have even told you yet,” Kara whines. “And, we’re not even together. Yet. At least I don’t think we are.” 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Go home and do stuff I don’t wanna know about. I’m still upset with her.” Alex’s voice says she’s angry, but the smile tugging at the corner of her lips tells Kara she’s happy for her.

“We can work on that!” Kara promises cheerfully. “Bye!”

She bounds into the air, and soon after, she’s in her window and touching down in her living room where Lena is still perched on the couch.

“That was quick,” Lena points out.

“Yeah, thank goodness,” Kara calls out, breezing into the bedroom in her suit and reappearing with fresh clothes, landing immediately on the couch next to Lena. “I couldn’t stop thinking about doing this.” She pulls Lena in for a kiss, and, when Lena smiles against her lips, it feels like _heaven_. Against her better will, she keeps it short. “I’m so sorry about that. That was, without a doubt, the worst timing ever.”

Lena settles against Kara’s side, leaning her head on her shoulder. “Getting a call about nuclear, alien technology less than 3 minutes after stammering out a romantic confession, kissing for the first time, and finding out hours later it’s a false alarm? Surely there are worse scenarios?!” Lena jokes, eyes filled with mirth.

“I wish I could say it won’t happen again, but I can’t even promise that it won’t happen again _an hour from now_ ,” Kara laments.

“Kara, I know the deal. At least now, you tell me where you’re going and don’t claim to have left your iron on or say you forgot you were supposed to go meet Supergirl for coffee.”

Kara laughs. “Fair point. So...now what?”

Lena straightens, shifting her body just enough to rest her arm on the back of the couch and face Kara fully. “Considering I interrupted you earlier to kiss you and never actually responded to what you said with words, I suppose it’s only fair that we talk like adults instead of kissing like teenagers, much as I enjoy it.” 

“Too bad,” Kara laments sarcastically. “Words are overrated.”

Lena swats playfully at Kara’s arm. “Says the Pulitzer winner.”

“Hey, as we discovered earlier, that might be a questionable decision!”

“Anyway,” Lena begins, pulling her face into a neutral expression again, “I guess it’s pretty obvious by now that you’re not alone in having feelings, though I didn’t need a series of Big Brother Goes Multiverse to figure it out.”

Kara suddenly feels like, now that the dam is open, she’s facing an absolutely uncontrollable urge to let out years of repressed flirting at any opportunity. “The kissing made that pretty clear.”

Lena chuckles, “I would hope so. Though I am surprised you were so insecure about telling me, I suspected my feelings were a pretty big elephant in the room after I literally told you I loved you and that you broke my heart.”

“Hey!” Kara exclaims defensively. “You kept using phrases like ‘our friends’ and ‘friendship,’ it seemed like you were hammering home a pretty different point!”

“It wasn’t exactly the time or place for a romantic confession, darling.” Lena leans her head in her hand as her left hand picks absently at the couch cushion. “But...that’s obviously why I was so on edge recently, thinking that you were looking giddy over a text from William.”

“Considering Alex just commented on, and I quote, my ‘lukewarm affection for men,’ I can assure you that literally never happened and there are corroborating witnesses to back me up.”

Lena smiles widely, and Kara fixates on the adorable way it makes her eyes crinkle. She’s unable to resist reaching up to caress Lena’s face with a feather-light touch.

Lena draws in a shaky breath. “Did you really not know until today that you had feelings for me?”

Kara sighs. “Consciously, no. But, looking back...it was embarrassingly obvious. What kind of dummy flies around the world to get somebody’s favorite foods, and then has a conversation with their friend about food being a romantic love language, without at least considering it? I can assure you, it’s me!” She points her thumbs at herself. “And, for added context, I’m referring to a conversation with Brainy after the _first_ time I went international food shopping.”

Lena snorts. “Okay, that’s pretty bad. It was almost as bad as when I had your office filled with flowers and convinced myself it was something you would only see as a thoughtful thank you from a new friend. Lucky for me, you were so oblivious that you actually did. Or unlucky for me, I suppose. I thought it was so obvious that you’d actively chosen to ignore it, so I kept my feelings to myself.”

“Well, we now know that I seem to be oblivious on every Earth if that makes you feel better. And...maybe that wasn’t so unlucky.”

“What do you mean?”

“Imagine if I’d taken receiving hundreds of flowers as a romantic gesture like everyone else on the planet would. You didn’t know I was Supergirl yet...it wouldn’t have worked. The timing would have been all wrong.”

Lena nods in recognition. “Good point. As you said...we’re the last Kara and the last Lena. It was all meant to work out exactly this way.”

“No pressure,” Kara jokes. Then, more softly, “What’s next?”

“I think we can agree that we both have some lingering trust issues. I know we worked through so much in the last few months, but it would be a disservice to our relationship to sweep everything under the rug now.”

“Our...relationship?”

Lena rolls her eyes playfully. “I’m never saying ‘friendship’ to you again. I don’t need you to be one of those sad internet baby gays who randomly wonders if the person they were making out with 5 minutes ago suddenly decided to hate them.”

Kara laughs hysterically. “Okay, I don’t know what you’re referring to, but we’re definitely going to come back to that.”

“Agreed! And yes, relationship. If you want to...I’d really like to deal with anything that’s still lurking under the surface, together. I have trust issues in my DNA, but I’m not willing to allow that to get in the way this time.”

“You are so great,” Kara breathes out dreamily. “I mean, I’d like that, too. Together.”

“Together,” Lena repeats, lifting her head from her hand and inching forward. “Now that that’s settled...we could even get back to the making out like teenagers thing we were working on earlier.” 

“I knew you were a genius.”

Their plan goes so well that they don’t even notice Mxy popping briefly into the room to drop off one last tape (and a muttered, “Cupid’s going to owe _me_ a favor after this”), complete with cover art depicting a cuddling Kara and Lena on Kara’s couch from just moments before.

“The One Where They Get It Right”

_The End..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking around! Although this story is over, I'm not convinced Mxy is done with these two...
> 
> You can find me on Twitter @ohniceshark and on Tumblr as ohnice1 (it's not very exciting there, I tend to blog 300 posts in one day and then disappear for two months.)
> 
> Don't forget to check out the wonderful [accompanying art by splodgebum7504](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26736175) if you haven't already! 
> 
> Toodles!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Be Kind, Rewind](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26792350) by [MrDewitt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrDewitt/pseuds/MrDewitt)
  * [[Art] Be Kind, Rewind](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27038119) by [kswhateverspace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kswhateverspace/pseuds/kswhateverspace)




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